By Eric King/WLKY
LOUISVILLE, Ky. -- Human trafficking hit close to home after a multi-state investigation led the FBI and police to two houses in Louisville, and one local group that helps victims of human trafficking said that's just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to the scope of the problem.
According to the Kentucky Rescue & Restore Project, the first, and perhaps most staggering fact, is that there are more human slaves in the world today than at any other time in history. Staggering fact No. 2: It's happening in Louisville.
"Most of these girls end up dead," said Theresa Flores. "They either die in it or commit suicide."
Flores is a survivor of human trafficking. She tours the country telling her story.At 15, she was drugged and raped by a boy who went to her church and school in Detroit."A few days later, he came to me and he had an envelope full of pictures, and he said my cousins were there and they were taking pictures and they have a plan," Flores said. "They said, 'You're going to earn these pictures back, or else.'"Flores said she was blackmailed and forced to sneak out of her home nearly every night for two years."I was delivered to middle-class homes, taken down stairs to these men-only areas where there was a bedroom," she said. "I was basically locked away. And I would sit there and wait for man after man after man all night long."Flores said that she was not a prostitute, rather a victim forced into a multibillion-dollar industry.Human trafficking is the second-largest international crime, second only to drug trafficking, according to the Kentucky Rescue & Restore Project. But officials said it's the fastest-growing international crime.Marissa Castellanos works with Catholic Charities in Louisville."Sold for sex on the Internet, in local hotels, at gas stations," Castellanos said. "It's really all around us."In Kentucky alone, 57 cases of human trafficking have been identified in the last three years. Those figures come from the Kentucky Rescue & Restore Project, a group that has helped more than 114 victims, some of whom are from out of state.Human trafficking is the sale, transport and profit from human beings who are forced to work for others. It's commercial in nature, and can include sex."People are re-sellable, unlike drugs and guns. When you sell (drugs or guns), you make your money one time," Castellanos said. "But when you have a person and you are exploiting them for sex and labor, they are re-sellable."Castellanos said many trafficking victims are often categorized by law enforcement as prostitutes."The idea of considering them the victim of a crime instead of as a criminal prostitute is very difficult," she said. "And for it to be trafficking, you have to prove that they were controlled in some way."

No comments:
Post a Comment