Most trafficked children are victims of family members – The Dispatch

Human trafficking doesn't look like what you think it does based on social media, Mississippi Bureau of Investigation Human Trafficking Coordinator Ashlee Lucas told the Exchange Club Thursday afternoon.

“It is very important that you not spread the misinformation that is so prevalent on social media,” she said. “They're saying there are zip ties on people's cars, or they saw a white van at Target. God bless anybody that drives a white van, right? People think that's what it is, that it's abduction.”

That is far from true, she said. In fact, most human trafficking victims know their trafficker.

“In 2019, the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children did a study and found that less than 1 percent were actual stranger abductions,” she said. “When we only focus on 1 percent on social media, our community members are missing it. The No. 1 reported type of trafficking we have in Mississippi is when a family member is trafficking a child.”

Such trafficking is often driven by drug addiction, she said.

“If Mom has an addiction, she is going to sell her child in exchange for drugs,” she said. “She's going to allow a boyfriend to live in her home, pay rent, pay for groceries, so we're just going to have to overlook that he's raping my child. He may even take that child to other places and traffic that child.”

The image that people have of what trafficked children look like is also not helpful, she said.

“It's important not to sensationalize,” she said. “Don't think of images of cages or handcuffs or ropes or duct tape. That's not what children look like who are trafficked. They look like children.”

It's also important to make sure children understand what is or is not normal, Lucas said.

“I've had from two different adults that they did not know what was happening to them in the home was not happening to other children until they heard it in their classroom,” she said. “One was in sixth grade, and everyone was horrified when they talked about inappropriate touching. She said that her dad had taught her this is what all daughters did.”

Trafficking isn't necessarily always about sex, she said. Sometimes it's about labor.

“It can be agricultural workers, for example, and the farmer may not even know,” Lucas said. “They could be getting their workers through a middleman that's providing employees.”

The largest labor trafficking case in the US was on the Gulf Coast, she said.

“They brought in workers from India, and they were promised green cards and that they could bring their families over,” she said. “We needed workers after Hurricane Katrina. They were held in camps with 18-24 men sleeping in one double-wide trailer.”

For more information, visit the MBI's human trafficking Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/mississippihumantraffickingcouncil/.

Brian Jones is the local government reporter for Columbus and Lowndes County.