Interview With Angel Swift, Financial Crimes and Human Trafficking Specialist

• Publication year: 2020
• Author: By Hera Smith

INTERVIEW WITH ANGEL SWIFT, FINANCIAL CRIMES AND HUMAN TRAFFICKING SPECIALIST

By Hera Smith

Angel Swift^*

1. WHAT ARE THE MOST PRESSING ISSUES IN HUMAN TRAFFICKING? HOW DOES TECHNOLOGY AND LAW WORK TOGETHER TO HELP ADDRESS THIS PROBLEM?

The current big topic across the United States (US) is whether states will adopt full decriminalization of sex work. While the ultimate intent in making sex work legal is to protect the sex worker (health care, fair compensation, additional protection), the reality is that this also means the legalization and legitimization of pimps and johns. On October 17, 2019, hearings were held in Washington, District of Columbia (DC) for the City Council to hear testimony from sex workers, human rights organizations and human trafficking survivors before considering whether DC would be the first city to decriminalize prostitution. While it seems that those who oppose and those who support the bill are pretty far from each other, I think there is definitely some common ground. The main consideration for those who oppose full decriminalization is the empowerment it will give to pimps and johns to mistreat sex workers. It does appear that everyone is on the same page about wanting to afford sex workers rights and protection.

With regard to pressing issues in human trafficking as it pertains to the financial industry, the ongoing trend has been collaboration, collaboration, and collaboration. There is a real opportunity for financial institutions (FIs) to come together to eradicate human trafficking through financial disruption. After all, human trafficking, for most traffickers, is a business. The financial industry is situated to severely impact the bottom line. Over the years, FIs have joined working groups and projects with law enforcement to identify financial indicators of activity that might be indicative of human trafficking, and to detect and take down human trafficking rings. More recently, data technology companies, like Enigma, and non-profit organizations, like Polaris, have joined the collaborative brain trust. With these two additional partners, the ability to share collective intelligence is amplified.

2. AS SOMEONE WHO HAS WORKED CLOSELY WITH THE STAKEHOLDERS, ARE THERE ANY GAPS IN THE LAW THAT NEED TO BE ENHANCED OR ADDRESSED IN ORDER TO HELP IN THE FIGHT AGAINST HUMAN TRAFFICKING? DOES THIS NEED TO BE ON A STATE, FEDERAL, OR INTERNATIONAL LEVEL TO BE MOST EFFECTIVE?

The short answer is yes, and some form of aligned implementation has to be done at all levels in order for anything to be truly effective. But as I've learned through years of effecting change, whether it's as simple as a change in process to a change in how people function, we have to start small, but impactfully, then expand to broader ground.

In the space of human trafficking...