By State Attorney Suzy Lopez
January is National Human Trafficking Prevention Month, and the Hillsborough County State Attorney’s Office is committed to ending human trafficking and supporting the victims who have been exploited for financial gain. With an estimated 49.6 million victims and an annual profit of approximately $236 billion, human trafficking is one of the largest criminal enterprises in the world.
When you hear the words ‘human trafficking,’ what often comes to mind is what we see in the movies: Young women traveling alone getting kidnapped overseas and sold to a trafficking ring. The reality is much more complicated than that. In most cases, a victim is groomed or deceived by someone they know and trust and then lured into a trafficking situation. Many traffickers are skilled manipulators and target vulnerable people who have emotional or material needs that they can fulfill. They then exploit their victim’s trust and dependency for their own financial gain by forcing the victim into a trafficking situation.
Sex trafficking is what most people think of when they hear the words human trafficking. However, many experts believe that labor trafficking is much more prevalent worldwide. Labor trafficking occurs in industries ranging from farming and fishing to hospitality and domestic service. There are thousands of laborers who are forced to work for little to nothing and are kept there out of fear and isolation. For many victims, escape may seem impossible, but for most there is a way out. Numerous local and national resources are available to assist victims to escape and help survivors thrive.
The National Human Trafficking Hotline (1-888-373-7888) is available 24/7 for victims to call and receive immediate help. Its extensive network of resources, including law enforcement, doctors, shelters and mental health counselors, helps victims with emergency, transitional and long-term needs. The hotline also serves as a tip line to report suspected human trafficking.
My office is dedicated to helping survivors by not only holding traffickers accountable but also helping survivors start over with a clean record. Many victims commit crimes while being trafficked and after escaping their situation, and that criminal record makes an already difficult process that much harder. In Florida, victims who have committed criminal offenses while being trafficked can petition for their records to be expunged. Survivors face many physical and emotional barriers when trying to rebuild their lives, so giving them a clean record makes a huge impact on their ability to move forward.
