by Briana Crawford
Georgia Bureau of Investigation Special Agent Sara Thomas spoke on human trafficking for the latest lecture in UWG’s Controversies of Culture Series on Wednesday, February 19, at 7 p.m. in the Campus Center Ballroom. UWG’s Center for Diversity and Inclusion hosted the event to promote awareness among UWG students about the traps and tragedy of human trafficking. It was cosponsored by the Department of Criminology and University Police.
“I am extremely appreciative of the number of students and community individuals who came out to support the human trafficking event,” says Deirdre Rouse, the acting director for the Center for Diversity and Inclusion. “We definitely want our students and UWG communities to not only become aware of human trafficking, but we also want them to become foot soldiers to hopefully aid in putting a halt to this. Often times, we see that when more people are made aware and take action by reporting what they see, it helps alleviate the problem.”
Sara presented information about the traits and warning signs of human trafficking. She also offered insight into popular sex trafficking business customs, special lingo and mannerisms. The entire trafficking industry is a multi-layered trade that erodes victims’ mental and physical well-being.
Sara explained that many people are lured into the sex trafficking business and then forced to perform sexual acts for money. The business is tremendously lucrative, with its $32 billion industry surpassing the combined profits of Google, Nike and Starbucks. Sometimes a victim’s own family voluntarily sells the child or young relative to pay off a drug-related debt.
Sara went on to explain how abuse petrifies and paralyzes many victims, of whom the average age is 12 years old, and how the victims become too terrified to escape their situation. “It’s important to spread education,” Sara explains. “If the victims aren’t self-identifying, we need to educate people, law enforcement, college students, businesses and organizations to identify those victims so that we can go and help them. Without people knowing what to look for and knowing what human trafficking is, we’re not going to be able to help those victims.”
This information is especially important for residents of Georgia, which is one of the top five states for human trafficking. Several factors make it an ideal location for smuggling humans, such as the music business, the airport and tourism hub, the largest concentration per capita of colleges and universities and a number of interstate connections.
Students have definitely taken notice, and many are actively seeking information to help significantly deteriorate the life span of this extremely destructive business. “Human trafficking is a very under-discussed problem,” remarks UWG student Michelle Landers. “I wouldn’t have missed this event for anything.”
