In our news roundups over the past year or so, we’ve been able to highlight some of the fantastic efforts by other industries who have stepped up to join the fight against human trafficking. While pulling together the news for this month’s roundup, a very clear trend emerged: the fruits of those efforts. From industries ranging from airlines, to schools, to health care professionals and beyond, those trained to see trafficking where it lurks are succeeding in identifying potential victims, reporting the cases to authorities, and getting the victims back to safety.
Here are just a few of the latest success stories:
American Airlines staff identifies two female victims
An American Airlines customer service agent noticed two teens traveling with one-way tickets from Sacramento to New York. When the agent spotted other red flags about the situation, she pulled them aside and they explained they had been offered lucrative modeling jobs arranged by someone they met on Instagram. The authorities were notified and the girls were returned to their parents.
Source: WBALTV
Marriott Hotel employee identifies boy victim
A safety and security associate at the hotel noticed a 12-year-old boy with two men and overheard one man say to the other, “I may take this one home.” Trained to notice signs of human trafficking, the associate thought the situation didn’t look right. Following her training, she alerted her supervisor, and they called the police. When the police arrived and questioned the men and the little boy, they confirmed the young boy had been missing for three days.
Source: USA Today
Sacramento doctor launches and expands successful safe haven clinic
Dr. Ron Chambers, a family physician with Dignity Health, launched in 2016, a South Sacramento clinic with a sex trafficking safe haven program, as one of few in the state where staff are specifically trained to identify and treat sex trafficking victims. He’s now bringing the model to Dignity Health residency programs all over California, and sharing identification protocols with health systems across the country.
Source: Capital Public Radio
California classrooms are developing trafficking awareness curriculum
Classrooms in California are requiring human trafficking awareness training as part of the sex education program, to occur at least once in middle school and once during high school. Programs like these are becoming ever more essential as traffickers start luring unaware teens with the promise of jobs with easy money, no experience necessary.
Source: ABC30
Others joining the fight:
AirBnb stepping up by using technology to spot trafficking in rental homes listed on their site
Tech industry willing to take on responsibility, efforts to stop enabling traffickers using online platforms
Organizations like Polaris and Issara Institute leading the charge in better data collection to help understand the sources and supply chains of trafficking.
A male survivor of sex trafficking seeks to shed light on how prevalent the commercial exploitation of boys really is–and it is much more than is often portrayed.
