Issue link: http://read.dmtmag.com/i/44411
EDITOR'S JOURNAL Your most important call Organization enlists truckers to help stop human trafficking t this year's Great American Trucking Show in Dallas, I attended a press conference by a nonprofit organization called Truckers Against Trafficking. The premiere of TAT's documentary was sobering and eye-opening. The documentary centered around a 15-year-old Ohio girl named Shari, who, along with her 14-year-old cousin, was kidnapped and forced in the sex slave business. The story is gut-wrenching, but it is far from being an isolated case. Most of us think of human traf- ficking as being a problem in third- world countries. But each year in this country, tens of thousands of kids are victims of human traf- ficking. It is a $32 billion crimi- nal enterprise. The average age for human trafficking victims is 12 years old. The life expectancy of a child after being forced into prosti- tution is less than 10 years. Some of these victims are kid- napped, like Shari and her cousin, while others are runaways or chil- dren with low self-esteem who are seduced by members of trafficking networks. These children are con- trolled using threats, drugs, beat- ings and rapes. FBI Supervisory Special Agent Evan Nicholas of the Crimes Against Children unit says in the documen- tary it's a mistake to think that most young children working as prosti- tutes are doing it willingly. "I don't think anyone wants to be beaten and raped on a daily basis or beaten in the most extreme ways … I don't think there is any willingness, espe- cially of your child victims." Human trafficking networks and child prostitution rings force their A 6 TRUCKERS NEWS NOVEMBER 2011 victims into a transient lifestyle to try to keep their victims from being detected by law enforcement. This makes truckstops, rest areas and other venues ideal places to shop their victims out because the aver- age person is used to seeing people come and go on a regular basis. That is why Truckers Against Trafficking was organized in 2009. The founders wanted to raise aware- ness of the problem and enlist the help of truckers, truckstops, truck- ing companies and law enforce- ment to rescue victims and curb the human trafficking epidemic. "The trucking industry is in a unique position because [truckers] are often in areas where pimps will bring in their victims to be prosti- tuted out," Nicholas says, "those being truckstops, gas stations and things of that nature." TAT has been instrumental in getting the word out not only through documentaries, websites, posters at truckstops and the media, but also through thousands of wal- let-sized cards the organization hands out to truckers. These cards list signs to help identify potential human trafficking victims and the national hotline number (888-373- 7888) to report suspicious activity. "What we are asking the truck- ing industry to do is become aware of this issue and then take action on it," says Kendis Paris, the national coordinator for TAT. "We primarily want truck drivers to become aware of it because they are the eyes and ears of the nation's highways." And it works. Shari, now mar- ried with two children, was rescued because a trucker called law enforce- ment and reported he saw her and RANDY GRIDER Randy Grider is editor of Truckers News. He is the son of a career trucker and holds a CDL. Write him at rgrider@ rrpub.com. other young girls at a truckstop and thought their actions were suspi- cious. That trucker's one phone call not only saved Shari's life and that of her cousin, but also helped rescue seven other child victims, break up a 13-state prostitution ring and put 31 criminals behind bars. And since 2003 — when the Innocence Lost National Initiative, a partnership with the FBI, Depart- ment of Justice Child Exploita- tion and Obscenity Section and the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children was formed — more than 1,200 other child vic- tims have been rescued. Truckers News has partnered with the National Center for Miss- ing and Exploited Children to help find missing children at www.truck- ersnews.com where the database is continuously updated. TAT has a wonderful website, www.truckersagainsttrafficking.com, that contains a wealth of informa- tion about human trafficking, videos and other resources that we would like for all our readers to visit. We encourage everyone to learn more about this horrible crime net- work and to become vigilant when on roadways. And please don't make assumptions about poten- tial prostitution involving underage children. They didn't get into the situ- ations they are in by themselves. They are someone's child, grand- child or sibling that someone is probably trying to find. Put yourself in their shoes and make a call if the situation doesn't look right. It could very well be the difference between life and death for a child.