LOUISIANA
USA Today
Arne Sorenson, Opinion contributor
In the early morning hours in one of our hotels in New Orleans last March, a safety and security associate at the hotel noticed a 12-year-old boy in the company of two men buying snacks. The associate overheard one man say to the other, “I may take this one home.” Trained to notice signs of human trafficking, the associate thought the situation didn’t look right to her, and the overheard statement was an alarm bell. Following her training, she alerted her supervisor, and they called the police.
When the police arrived and questioned the men and the little boy, they confirmed our associate’s suspicions. Things were definitely not right. The young boy had been missing for three days. Thanks to the quick actions of the associate, this story has a good ending.
Unfortunately, that’s not always the case.
Last year, over 40 million people worldwide were trapped in some form of slavery, according to the International Labor Organization. This is a staggering number, equal to the entire state of California. Most of them are women and children. They can end up as forced laborers, victims of sex trafficking, or worse.
At $150 billion a year, human trafficking is one of the largest global criminal enterprises.
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