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A program in Utah that has served victims of modern slavery for four years is shutting down because of threats from human traffickers.
It is transferring victims to other groups that can help them more securely or discreetly.
"This is not a decision we came to lightly," said Jocelyn Romano, executive director of the Utah Health and Human Rights Project. "The board gave this a lot of thought. We're very saddened by this decision."
The group is closing down its program to assist victims of human trafficking, but will continue a separate program that helps victims of torture and severe war trauma. It also will continue as a consultant to help other organizations serve victims of human trafficking.
Romano sent a letter to other agencies saying the decision "was prompted by a series of threats directed at UHHR staff. The threats continued over several months and became increasingly hostile."
She said federal and local police are investigating the threats, and that no one has been physically hurt so far.
"I can't go into much detail," she said in an interview. "I can tell you that threats indicate an organized-crime element, which is typical of human trafficking."
Romano added in her letter to other groups that "human trafficking, by nature, is extremely violent and complex; we cannot assume the level of risk and potential harm to staff and clients at this time." She said the safety of clients is paramount, and her agency is trying to work with other groups to provide better safety while providing services.
Romano noted that the threats started as human traffickers began to face prosecution by some of the group's clients. She said reaching the point of prosecution often takes three to four years after rescuing victims, helping them heal and building trust. And her program has just reached the point of helping several clients assist in prosecution of traffickers.
"When that happens," Romano explained, "defendants are identified and the level of violence can increase at that time."
She noted similar programs elsewhere provide services "by a dedicated victim advocate through the police department, so that is a law enforcement person. Obviously, that person is equipped and trained to protect themselves and the client. We don't have that model here," but will pursue it.
Meanwhile, services will be dispersed among many agencies so no one of them becomes a main target including groups that have more secure facilities.
Romano said her program has helped more than 200 human-trafficking victims in Utah, and such numbers suggest that thousands of such victims may live in the state.
She said they include "victims of forced labor, sex trafficking and domestic servitude," who were enslaved while in Utah although the conditions may have started elsewhere. She said they include U.S. citizens and foreign nationals.
Of note, several Utahns were key to breaking what the Justice Department calls the largest human-trafficking case in U.S. history. They said they were trapped into modern slavery and shuttled to farms around the nation, but managed to tell officials about their plight while working at a Utah pig farm to help trigger investigations.
That led to indictments last fall against six leaders of Los Angeles-based Global Horizons, which the Justice Department says recruited about 400 Thais to work on U.S. farms but then held them in virtual slavery. Several of them now living in Utah cooperated with the investigation.