Links determined from the recently removed image-link post.

Subject matter being the link between human trafficking(sex slavery, etc) exploiting the massage[ therapy] industry.

Extensive report linked at bottom of post.

[https://www.massagemag.com/massage-associations-human-trafficking-report-off-base-87539/ | http://archive.fo/c0gkG]:

Massage Associations Claim Human Trafficking Report is “Off Base”

November 29, 2017 | Karen Menehan

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A report that details human trafficking within the massage industry is misguided and off base, according to two national massage associations.

However, the director of the organization that charged a task force with creating the report stands by it.

The Human Trafficking Task Force Report, released about a month ago by the Federation of State Massage Therapy Boards (FSMTB) claims that between 6,500 and 9,000 illicit businesses use massage or another type of bodywork as a front for prostitution in the U.S. and that such businesses create a threat for all massage therapists.

The FSMTB is the membership organization for U.S. state boards of massage therapy. It provides the massage exam, the Massage & Bodywork Licensing Exam (MBLEx) used by states to license massage therapists.

 

The American Massage Therapy Association (AMTA) and Associated Bodywork & Massage Professionals (ABMP) released a joint statement, provided to MASSAGE Magazine by AMTA, that critiques the content and purpose of the report and demands that any implied support by either massage association of the report’s findings be removed from it.

Inappropriate Burden?

The human trafficking report notes several areas within FSMTB’s purview that could help fight human trafficking, including: increasing awareness of human trafficking; exploring the concept of one national massage-school accrediting authority; and amending its Model Practice Act to include a representative with a background in human trafficking to member boards. Additional areas are mentioned in the report.

According to the massage associations’ joint statement, there are recommendations made in the report that, if implemented, “would inappropriately burden the practice of massage therapy.”

Additionally, the associations stated that both human trafficking and prostitution operate outside the massage field, not within it. (The full statement is shown below.)~

[https://www.massagemag.com/fsmtb-releases-report-human-trafficking-87448/ | @ web.archive.org]:

Breaking News: FSMTB Releases Report on How Human Trafficking Impacts the Massage Field

November 8, 2017 | Karen Menehan

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Humans forcing humans into servitude and slavery is a practice dating back to the earliest records of civilization, but the growth of modern human trafficking—the coordinated, large-scale transportation of people who are forced into servitude, including prostitution—over the past two decades means the problem for the massage field has deepened.

In response to this problem, the Federation of State Massage Therapy Boards (FSMTB) has just released the Human Trafficking Task Force Report, which details the connection between human trafficking and massage therapy and provides ideas for combating the scourge of trafficking.

The FSMTB is the membership organization for U.S. state boards of massage therapy. It provides the massage exam, the Massage & Bodywork Licensing Exam (MBLEx) used by states to license massage therapists.

The report itself; 47 page pdf:

[http://archive.is/KV26K]

Happy to self delete if determined not relevant.

cc: @Vindicator