SC sees human trafficking reports increase in 2022, AG Wilson expands task force – WIS-TV

COLUMBIA, S.C. (WIS) – More victims of human trafficking were reported in 2022 than the year before across South Carolina, according to the state's 2022 Human Trafficking Task Force Annual Report.

Attorney General Alan Wilson released the 10th annual report during a press conference on Monday.

“We will not stop with this crusade until we have eradicated human trafficking in the state of South Carolina,” he said.

Wilson, who also chairs the task force, said he is incredibly proud of its work over the last decade. The task force is comprised of twelve subcommittees, nine regional subcommittees, and an advisory council and has nearly 800 members.

“Its efforts to educate and equip people in how to combat human trafficking are making South Carolina a safer place to live,” he said. “The work is not finished, but our defenses against this horrendous crime are getting stronger every day, and we're committed to the fight.”

The state will add four regional task forces to the effort in 2023, hoping to ensure coordinated statewide responses to these types of crimes.

It will also continue preventative education and training with the hiring of a prevention education coordinator who will work in schools throughout the state, according to SC Human Trafficking Task Force Director Kathryn Moorehead.

There were 124 reported cases of human trafficking in South Carolina last year, up slightly from 121 the year before.

The number of victims reported increased by 35 percent, from 206 in 2021 to 277 last year.

Wilson attributes this to the efforts of the task force to raise awareness about the issue.

“Human trafficking happens on Main Street here in South Carolina,” he said. “It usually happens with close friends or family members, relatives, someone that knows the victim. And as people become more aware, another group of people are becoming more aware of this crime, and that's victims of human trafficking.”

Increased awareness also has an added benefit for law enforcement.

“With more knowledge and training and understanding of how these crimes are committed, we can better prevent and protect those that are the most vulnerable populations of our communities,” Chief Mark Keel of the South Carolina Law Enforcement Division said.

These crimes are happening all across the state, with the most reports coming from Greenville County, followed by Charleston, Richland, Horry, and Spartanburg.

“This is a metric of awareness in that community or that county, not a metric of activity,” Wilson said. “We don't know what we don't know. So I want to make sure that doesn't mean that those counties were where the most human trafficking activity is occurring, that's just where the most people are recognizing it and calling it in.”

State data shows that there was a 458 percent increase in reported labor trafficking victims in 2022. That is the first time since data has been recorded that reports of labor trafficking were higher than sex trafficking, according to Wilson.

There was also a 44 percent increase in victims who identified as Latinx.

Use of the National Human Trafficking Hotline was up 128 percent in South Carolina in 2022, according to state data.

SLED supported 416 cases involving human trafficking statewide last year.

In 2022, 10 defendants were charged with human trafficking in South Carolina state courts.

Kat Wehunt, a human trafficking survivor who now works on the task force's survivor advisory subcommittee, said the key to combatting these crimes is continuing to raise awareness.

“We need the community to help us with this,” she said. “We can't do this on our own, and we will not solve this on our own until the community gets outraged about it and starts to help.”

Wehunt is also the founder and Executive Director of the Formation Project, a local nonprofit that provides direct services to survivors.

She was sex-trafficked by a family member as a teenager and said knowledge is an extremely important piece of the puzzle as she did not realize she was a victim of human trafficking until years after she escaped.

“I thought that it was just the movie Taken,” Wehunt said. “And I thought, ‘well, I wasn't sold for a million dollars on a yacht, or I wasn't kept in a basement or held hostage.' And so once I learned about what human trafficking is, then I realized that that was my experience. And so that's how I kind of got started working in the movement.”

Wehunt added that only a small portion of those who are trafficked are kidnapped or trafficked by somebody they do not know.

She commended the Attorney General's Office for ensuring that survivors are heard in this effort.

“The fact that we have a survivor advisory committee is really impactful,” Wehunt said. “If you are working to solve a problem and you don't have any of your stakeholders at the table, I'd really be skeptical of the conclusion you came up with. And the fact that they think it's important to have survivors' voices leading this initiative, to have a seat at the table, to give feedback on policies and programs and legislation, speaks to just the work that they do.”

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