East Windsor Affirms Opposition To Human Trafficking

EAST WINDSOR TOWNSHIP, NJ — “Human trafficking is a global issue whose victims can be found throughout the world and even close to home,” East Windsor Mayor Janice S. Mironov said during a presentation recognizing January as Human Trafficking Awareness Month. “It is important to recognize this issue annually to raise awareness and to be vigilant in fighting this crime that dehumanizes its victims and subject so many people to a life of servitude and abuse. Again, Womanspace is out there as an advocate for and local resource of support and assistance to survivors of human trafficking.”

During the presentation, Mironov presented Womanspace Executive Director Patricia Hart and Womanspace Board Member/retired East Windsor Chief of Police Bill Spain with a poster for its 40th anniversary. The poster featured a photo she took of a billboard near the border of Myanmar and Thailand, in Southeast Asia, that was an anti-human trafficking public service announcement. She said human trafficking is a major issue in that part of the world and shows the global nature of the problem and the importance that organizations such as Womanspace combat it locally.

The Mayoral Proclamation recognizes that “human trafficking is a borderless crime against individuals that violates the most basic human rights and deprives victims of every shred of personal freedom. The United Nations’ International Labour Organization has estimated that nearly 24.9 million people are trapped in forced labor, including 4.8 million people who are in forced sexual exploitation.”

Mironov’s Proclamation stated “to raise awareness about the signs and consequences of human trafficking, to promote reporting mechanisms and opposition to human trafficking in all of its forms, to encourage support for the survivors of human trafficking throughout the State of New Jersey and across the world and to put an end to this abhorrent criminal activity and restore freedom and dignity to its survivors.”

The Proclamation further stated that the, “Township of East Windsor is resolved to support the goals and ideals of observing a National Month of Human Trafficking Awareness each year to support all efforts by individuals, businesses, organizations, and governing bodies to raise awareness of and opposition to Human Trafficking.”

The attached image was provided by East Windsor Township officials: Pictured (from left to right) are Mayor Janice S. Mironov; Patricia Hart, Executive Director of Womanspace, and Retired East Windsor Police Chief Bill Spain.