The Southwest Michigan Human Trafficking Task Force is planning a lunch and learn event for anyone to find out more about how to spot human trafficking and how they can help to stop it. The group’s Heather McGannon tells us the engagement planned for April 14 will focus on labor trafficking, when migrant workers are cheated into jobs they didn’t agree to do.
“In west Michigan, particularly, we have a large migrant population here, many H2A guest workers” McGannon said. “Michigan is actually the ninth highest state in the U.S. to issue H2A visas.”
McGannon says in these situations, a recruiter will find a migrant and mislead them about the job they’re hired to do.
“Typically, they come to the United States with a debt. The recruiter will place a debt on them, saying for their travel expenses, they owe [the recruiter] $5,000 or something like that.”
The migrant’s identification will also often be taken away. They’ll experience poor working and living conditions as well as long hours. Speaking on April 14 at Corewell Health Meadowbrook in Benton Harbor will be Ben O’Hearn, the litigation director at Migrant Legal Aid. The event starts at 12 p.m. and will last one hour. You can sign up to attend right here.
