Human trafficking may be active in Albany

ALBANY — Board members of Albany Crime Stoppers were recently given information on the nature of human trafficking and commercial sexual exploitation of children, which included some ways to help prevent the crime.

Speaking at the downtown Law Enforcement Center, David McCleary, a Roswell resident and representative of Rotary International, gave an overview of how young at-risk girls fall prey to older “pimps” who force them to work in strip joints or illegal massage parlors.

According to McCleary, victims are typically girls 12 to 14 years of age who encounter older men on the Internet. The men purposefully “romance” the girls, McCleary said and often become their boyfriends. Eventually, victims are persuaded to leave their families for the men, McCleary said, and are then forced to work as prostitutes, strippers or massage parlor workers in large cities like Atlanta.

McCleary said the girls are usually kept in the illegal and degrading occupations by the use of threats to them and their families.

“Initially, people thought this happens only in the City of Atlanta or large cities,” McCleary said, “But we’ve found that if affects everyone from all over Georgia and even the world.”

McCleary said that while there has not yet been a confirmed human trafficking raid in Albany, the Georgia Bureau of Investigation strongly suspects the activity exists.

“”A lot of times, particularly if an area is poor, people may come in and offer (the victims) a modeling job or something like that. Then she runs away with them to the big city,” McCleary said.

According to McCleary, a child may be more at risk if her home life is poor or troubled, or she’s been the victim of sexual abuse. Often the girls live lonely or unsupervised lives, McClearly said.

McCleary said that not only do the pimps often find their victims through the Internet, but also market them in a similar way.

“There are online sites where ‘customers’ can go to ask for a 12-year-old blond, for example and then purchase that girl. Unfortunately, those sites aren’t being shut down,” McCleary said.

The basic way to fight or defeat human trafficking, McCleary said, is by educating the public to the signs a young person may be trafficked, and then to alert law enforcement of the situation.

According to McCleary, some of the signs of human trafficking include a potential victim with an man several years older and not a family member and wearing expensive jewelry or tattoos with someone’s name. The potential victim is more likely to have unsupervised access to a smart phone or Internet computer, McCleary said, and may walk alone to school or to the local mall.

McCleary said communities can help guard against the threat of human trafficking by providing mentors for the children, summer lunch programs, after school programs and homeless shelters.

Rotary International and local Rotary clubs are dedicated to the fight against human trafficking and commercial sexual exploitation of children, McCleary said, and partners with a number of organizations in Georgia and across the United States. According to Rotary officials, the partners include Shared Hope International, National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, Polaris Project, Georgia Department of Education, Wellspring Living and Georgia Governor’s Office CSEC Task Force.

To contact the Rotary International program End Human Trafficking Now, call 1-888-3737-888 or go to www.endHTnow.com