Traffickers force more men into servitude More men victims of human trafficking

The soft-spoken Salvadoran man bears no resemblance to the iconic images of human-trafficking victims, young girls whose faces are plastered on billboards alongside 1-800 numbers to report crimes.

His jeans hide a cigarette burn on his thigh, and a jagged scar that runs up his shin. It is a reminder, he said, of the day he escaped a remote ranch in Texas where he was held captive by a group of four human traffickers.

He said he was forced to work without pay for five months, picking vegetables at gunpoint. He was beaten and raped and burned with cigarettes, he said.

“You had to do what they said, or they said they would kill you,” said the man, who the Houston Chronicle is not identifying because he is believed to be the victim of a sex crime. “They treated us like animals.”

After five months, he escaped and ran for days until he found help. In February, he was certified by the federal government as a human-trafficking victim — one of a growing number of men identified as such in recent years.

According to the latest U.S. State Department report on human trafficking, some 45 percent of the 286 certified adult victims in fiscal year 2008 were male, a significant increase from the 6 percent certified in 2006.

Kenneth Wolfe, a spokesman for the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, which certifies victims of human trafficking, said the increase in the percentage of male victims is due mainly to an uptick in labor-trafficking cases. Seventy-six percent of all human-trafficking victims certified in 2008 were victims of labor trafficking, he said, while sex trafficking accounted for 17 percent. Five percent of victims were subject to both forms of trafficking.

Maritza Conde-Vazquez, a special agent with the Houston FBI who specializes in human-trafficking cases, said there has been an increase locally in the number of male human-trafficking victims, primarily from Central and South America. The majority of the cases, she said, involve forced labor at construction sites or in agriculture. She said she could not discuss details of the cases, which are still under investigation.

“We’ve seen an increase in male victims in the human-trafficking arena, and it’s a trend that I don’t think is going to slow down,” Conde-Vazquez said. “It will be a bigger problem with each passing year,” she said.

Conde-Vazquez also attributed the growth in the number of male victims in part to an overall increase in human trafficking. The State Department estimates that 17,500 people are trafficked into the United States each year, but the vast majority are never identified as victims.

“Human trafficking exists because it is very profitable,” Conde-Vazquez said. “It’s a low-risk business for the traffickers because they are not dealing with merchandise they have to safekeep — they are dealing with human beings. In that sense, it’s lower risk than dealing with drugs or weapons.”

Recognition of the growing human-trafficking problem in Houston has spawned coalitions and task forces that include law enforcement agencies and nongovernmental organizations.

Houston is considered a human-trafficking hub because of its diverse population and proximity to the border, authorities said.

Males may be under-reported

Maria Trujillo, executive director of Houston Rescue & Restore Coalition, which helps human-trafficking victims, said the actual number of male victims is most likely significantly higher than reported.

“Male victims are really under-reported,” Trujillo said. “I think there’s just a bigger stigma for men. Some see (reporting) it as losing face, or just take it as their lot in life.”

Under the Victims of Trafficking and Violence Protection Act of 2000, victims who cooperate with authorities on trafficking can stay in the U.S. legally, at least temporarily while the case moves through the court system. Some victims meet the qualifications for a “T-visa,” a trafficking visa, which also offers a path toward legal residency.

The Salvadoran man said he met a “coyote,” a people smuggler, at the Guatemala-Mexico border in the winter of 2008.

He promised to pay the smuggler thousands of dollars in exchange for safe passage to the U.S. Instead, he said, he was taken to the ranch, and forced to work at gunpoint until he found a chance to escape during a rainstorm, when his captors were distracted.

Sgt. Michael Barnett, an investigator with Texas Beverage and Alcohol Commission who worked with a Houston police detective on the case, said investigators have searched extensively for the ranch where the Salvadoran man was held, but have been unable to find it. He said the case is still open.

The man said that when he first settled into his Houston apartment, he had trouble sleeping and would wake up every few hours with nightmares. Lately, he said, he’s been doing better, but still struggles with what happened out on the ranch.

“Sometimes I ask myself,” he said, “‘Why did this happen to me?’”

susan.carroll@chron.com