Your alertness and support can help reduce human trafficking in North Carolina

Human trafficking can be an invisible crime, but it’s happening right here in North Carolina. Stopping it will require a joint effort between individuals and organizations throughout the community.

North Carolina consistently ranks in the top 10 states in the nation for the number of human trafficking cases. In 2019 alone, the Human Trafficking Hotline reported 385 calls from victims and survivors in the state. As the head of the Anti-Human Trafficking Program for World Relief Triad, I know that anyone can be vulnerable – but there continue to be certain populations who are more “unseen” than others, like minors and those who are unhoused.

In 2019, World Relief, in collaboration with other community agencies, surveyed unhoused participants across three North Carolina counties for red flags of human trafficking and found that 44% experienced three or more red flags. These results indicated that human trafficking is present in our communities and that those who are unhoused are among the most highly vulnerable.

Red flags vary based on age, gender, and other characteristics. With youth, in particular, these include having a relationship with a significantly older person (in person or online); having run away from home multiple times; references to knowing how to live on the streets; frequent absences from school; and rapid weight loss. It’s important that teachers, coaches, and other mentors working with youth understand these red flags and others.

We need our community to learn how to identify trafficking and be prepared to respond. Federal, state, and local law enforcement is vital, but all of us have a stake in this fight. Marriott, for example, is training hundreds of thousands of hotel workers to spot the signs of human trafficking in hotels. Local medical professionals are working to create identification tools and awareness within hospital and medical settings, but we need everyone at the table to discuss the issues – from executives to those working with and around patients. An estimated nine out of ten sex trafficking victims receive medical treatment at least once during their bondage, and nearly one in three visits Planned Parenthood.

It’s often the people who don’t think they’re in a position to help who can make the greatest difference. For example, people in public works jobs can often spot signs of trafficking more easily than police officers because they inconspicuously return to the same neighborhoods week after week. People who go into others’ homes – like house cleaners, HVAC technicians, electricians, and plumbers, can also spot trafficking situations – like “tally sheets” on the walls, where the number of “customers” are marked, or excessive labor evidenced around the home or businesses.

We urgently need dentists and ophthalmologists to offer their services to victims. We need businesses that are willing to hire trafficking survivors. We need attorneys who will represent undocumented immigrant victims who have been lured or smuggled into the country for the purpose of exploitation and find themselves present without the promised support. We need landlords who can offer housing opportunities. We need churches to help with outreach and be the community that recognizes people’s strengths and gifts and treats them with dignity. In general, it’s important for all of us to be aware of changes in the behavior of a loved one that could indicate a risk.

Our Triad Rapid Response Team’s Street Outreach Program, for example, is designed to engage women and men who are involved in street solicitation; we work with law enforcement, the Department of Health, and other organizations to offer free STI checks, pass out hospitality bags, and spread awareness about victim services like shelters and job services. But we need volunteers to donate items and businesses and nonprofits to offer their services.

We also need statewide and community support for programs focused on high-risk youth in the foster care system who have histories of running away. Adolescents are likely to be offered a life in the commercial sex industry within 48 hours of being on the street or be lured into work with unsafe practices and a lack of protection. The goal of our Guilford Minor Trafficking Response Team, for example, is to provide both an urgent and ongoing community response to youth who have run away 4 or more times and who are high-risk for being lured or forced into the trafficking industry.

Finally, we need law enforcement and local government to equip their staff and community. Most trafficking cases are handled under the vice or sex crimes divisions, for example, but every law enforcement team should have its own trafficking task force. Additionally, few law enforcement agencies even have the human trafficking category to check off the box. Instead trafficking is being screened in as other forms of crime. A recent example from 2020 included a referral from the National Human Trafficking Hotline for an emergency response by the Triad Rapid Response Team and World Relief Triad to someone fleeing a trafficking situation. When World Relief Staff called local law enforcement for additional assistance, the operator screened it in as kidnapping. These are complex cases which need collaborative solutions; in order to achieve strong responses, we also need to be able to identify what we’re seeing and responding to across North Carolina.

Collaboration between individuals and community organizations is essential to increasing awareness, spotting trafficking, and improving services for victims. Through raising our individual voices, we have the opportunity to change North Carolina for the better.

Rachel Parker is the Anti-Human Trafficking Program Manager for World Relief Triad.