The Dark Side of the Oil Boom: Human Trafficking in the Heartland

[undeterred]

In a North Dakota town that was once dying, oil and money are flowing –€“ and bringing in big-city problems
April 28, 2014 7:00PM ET
by Aaron Ernst - @aaronernst

WILLISTON, N.D. — When he took office 20 years ago, Mayor Ward Koeser’s town was struggling. But thanks to a huge influx of oil jobs and money over the past five years, Williston now calls itself Boomtown, USA. “It’s growing faster than any place else in the country,” the mayor said with a smile. “It’s exciting. It’s amazing what oil can do for you. Black gold.” The race to extract that black gold from the prairies of North Dakota is evident everywhere around Williston. Oil pump jacks dot nearly every farmer’s field. Stand next to one and you can hear liquid money filling up tanks. Trucks haul it to the nearest train depot, and trains pulling crude rumble through Williston all day and all night.

By next year, the United States is expected to overtake Saudi Arabia and become the world’s top oil producer. For those at the heart of the boom, it means job security in an uncertain economy. Williston’s unemployment rate is about one-half of 1 percent, and its per capita income is among the highest in the Upper Midwest. But the boom has been accompanied by some growing pains. The influx of labor has made rents in this small town the highest in the nation, surpassing San Francisco’s and crowding workers into cramped quarters in RV parks and “man camps.” Welders Fabio Soto and Andrew Jolovich moved to Williston to make money and are trying to stay out of trouble in this testosterone-soaked town. “That was one of the troubles,” Soto said, pointing to the alcohol-sensing monitor on his ankle with a laugh. “I ended up getting in a little scrap and going to jail.”

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Before the boom, the 11-bed Williston Family Crisis Shelter filled up about 50 days a year. Now it’s always at capacity and has been for the past two years. How much has domestic violence increased since the boom? “At one point I would say it tripled,” said Lana Bonnet, who runs the shelter. “But now I’m going to say quadrupled. I mean, it’s really crazy.” Cramped quarters, drugs, alcohol and money are a volatile mix in Williston, she said. “They get here. They can find jobs but no housing,” she said. “So what are they doing? They are living in their vehicles. They’re living in campers. If you and your wife and two kids, three kids were living in a vehicle — yikes, right?”

That mix of men and money has brought another plague. Undercover footage provided by the anti-trafficking organization iEmpathize hints at a more insidious problem: human sex trafficking. Windie Jo Lazenko said an influx of money and a highly skewed ratio of men to women has fueled a massive increase in prostitution, often arranged through websites like Backpage.com. And where there is prostitution, she said, there is trafficking. Lazenko went to Williston seven months ago to fight the sex trafficking of women and underage girls that she said is a direct result of the oil boom. She has since formed 4her North Dakota to help victims of sex trafficking and exploitation. “I look for identifying marks like tattoos because a lot of the girls under pimp control are branded … with their pimp’s name,” she said.

Read more at: http://america.aljazeera.com/watch/shows/america-tonight/articles/2014/4/28/the-dark-side-oftheoilboomhumantraffickingintheheartland.html