In the last five years, the
Alameda County District Attorney's Office prosecuted nearly 400 sex trafficking
cases, accounting for almost 50 percent of such prosecutions in the entire
state,
"(Airports are) the No. 1
place to intercept (victims) because they are outside of the hands of the
trafficker often,"
Workers at Oakland International
Airport began training on how to spot victims of human trafficking as part of a
regional effort to stamp out what's become the world's fastest-growing criminal
enterprise.
Thousands of victims of sex and labor
trafficking are shepherded through airports, but they are very rarely rescued
there, said Betty Ann Boeving, executive director of the Bay Area
Anti-Trafficking Coalition. Officials are sharing this message with airport
workers across the board: If you see something, say something.
"The truth is that sex trafficking and
human trafficking is big business right here in this country, right here in
this region, and it's high time that we all take notice of it and get serious
about eradicating it," said Rep. Jackie Speier, D-San Mateo, who along
with Rep. Barbara Lee, D-Oakland, U.S. Attorney Melinda Haag and Alameda County
District Attorney Nancy O'Malley, is leading an ongoing effort to combat sex
trafficking in the Bay Area.
Training airport workers to recognize the
signs that a man, woman or child is a victim will save individuals from such
modern-day slavery and deter traffickers who masquerade as sports coaches,
employers and family members, officials say. Oakland is the last of the Bay
Area's major airports to have workers trained, after San Francisco and San Jose
international airports. Retraining at Bay Area airports is planned
before the 2016 Super Bowl at the San Francisco 49ers' Levi's Stadium as sex
trafficking in any region is at its highest during major sports events, Boeving
said.
Oakland, in particular, is known for having a sex trade problem that is being aggressively tackled by O'Malley and the Oakland Police Department. Criminal street gangs are increasingly using sex trafficking as a moneymaking enterprise because, unlike drugs, they can sell the same boy or girl over and over again, O'Malley said. The majority of sex trafficking victims are minors. Boeving said. "These girls are sometimes put on a plane from Chicago to arrive in San Francisco, and so we are hoping that in transit is a place where someone could actually come to their rescue."
Oakland, in particular, is known for having a sex trade problem that is being aggressively tackled by O'Malley and the Oakland Police Department. Criminal street gangs are increasingly using sex trafficking as a moneymaking enterprise because, unlike drugs, they can sell the same boy or girl over and over again, O'Malley said. The majority of sex trafficking victims are minors. Boeving said. "These girls are sometimes put on a plane from Chicago to arrive in San Francisco, and so we are hoping that in transit is a place where someone could actually come to their rescue."
--By Malaika Fraley
Oakland Tribune
No comments:
Post a Comment