Human Trafficking Awareness

ZANESVILLE, OH – January is Human Trafficking Awareness Month.

Human trafficking is the illegal use of vulnerable people to make a profit and it can happen in many different ways.

Ron Welch, the Muskingum County Prosecuting Attorney, talked about some of the common misconceptions surrounding human trafficking.

“I think a lot of the times when people think of human trafficking they think that it only occurs in larger cities or bigger jurisdictions and that is simply not the case.” Welch said. “Human trafficking occurs in many communities, regardless of size. The second misconception is human trafficking only involves sex trafficking, when labor trafficking is also a large part of it.”

Welch said labor trafficking involves individuals who are in the country illegally and their traffickers use deportation, the authorities, or violence to keep control over the victim.

He said the 3rd misconception is that people think that it is easy for the victim to escape from their trafficker. Welch said these victims can include people in a domestic violence relationship or a runaway child from an abusive home trying to seek shelter.

“Human traffickers are not just physically violent but they’re emotionally manipulative.” Welch said. “They’re able to really touch the individual that they’re dealing with in an emotional way and this causes the victim to build a bond with them, but it’s not a healthy bond.”

Welch said human trafficking can take many forms and detailed what some of them are.

“We have situations where we have children who are trapped by their parents. We’ve had situations where we’ve had drug dealers who have individuals who become addicted to the drug and then in exchange for the drug, what they do is they traffic those individuals sexually as well as for purposes of dealing drugs.” Welch said. “In the case of sexual trafficking, especially as you get younger, there’s a sense of embarrassment attached to that for younger people that don’t really know how to express themselves to others.”

Welch also said if you suspect someone is being human trafficked to immediately report it to the police.