WAUSAU, WI (WSAU) — January 11th is recognized as National Human Trafficking Awareness Day nationwide, a crime that hits close to home no matter the size of the town according to The Women’s Community Inc. of Wausau.
“[In 2017] The Women’s Community provided services to 23 adults who have experienced human trafficking,” said Brenda Bayer, Human Trafficking Advocate for the group. She says the crime comes in two forms, sexual and labor.
Trafficking involving labor could look harmless, such as an immigrant coming to Wisconsin to work on a dairy farm. However when they get her the boss may take their documents and force them to work long hours for little or no pay, then force them to work extra to pay off living expenses like food and shelter. The immigrant may not know that a crime is being committed against them, making it difficult to report. Throw in extra complications such as a language barrier or cultural differences and the problem becomes even more difficult to spot.
Sexual trafficking comes in several forms. A girl may be enticed to go on a weekend shopping trip to a place like Chicago or Milwaukee, then forced to perform sex acts in a hotel room as a form of payment for the trip. Girls may also be picked up and sold on sites like craigslist or backpage over the course of a weekend then returned home.
Bayer says social media also plays a role in setting a trap for trafficking as well. “Young folks that don’t have oversite of that, those things are really hard to determine. So that’s why human trafficking is so hard to identify.”
One of her group’s goals in 2018 is to change a law on Wisconsin’s books that can cause victims of sex trafficking that are under the age of 18 to be charged with prostitution. “There’s a movement to change the legislative language. Historically we have arrested juveniles on prostitution charges.” She says the thinking behind that was to get them into protective custody and get them the help and services they need while they are in jail or detention. But Bayer says that hasn’t worked, “it’s not the best thing to do for the victim. Since a minor cannot consent to sex it does not make sense to charge them with prostitution.”
She says if you suspect human Trafficking in any form your best bet is to call law enforcement, the national human trafficking hotline, or and advocacy group such as The Women’s Community.
