Sex and labor trafficking reports in South Carolina continue to increase | Columbia News

COLUMBIA — Reports on the exploitation and trafficking of workers in South Carolina spiked in 2022 while the number of children identified as sex-trafficking victims also rose, according an annual report by the state's Human Trafficking Task Force.

Awareness has contributed to the continuous rise in reports over the past decade since the task force was formed under a mandate in the 2012 human-trafficking law, Attorney General Alan Wilson said Jan. 9.

Wilson announced the key findings of the 119-page report, which drew from calls to the National Human Trafficking Hotline, court records and information from the Department of Social Services.

Over the past decade, there has been an emphasis on sex trafficking, while labor trafficking has been overlooked and underreported, according to the report.

“There was a 450 percent increase in reported victims of labor trafficking in South Carolina,” according to Wilson, who chairs the task force.

A total of 132 South Carolina victims were reported through the National Hotline in 2022, a sharp uptick from 24 and 22 reported in the two previous years.

Most of the labor trafficking reports were forestry industry, followed by hospitality, manufacturing and factories, landscaping services, and agriculture and farming. Most of the victims had been lured in by a recruiter or contractor.

In many cases, debt bondage is a factor as many foreign workers are recruited to work in the United States and pay different fees to recruiters or employers for travel, work authorization and job placement, according to Jade M. Roy, a lieutenant in the State Law Enforcement Division's Human Trafficking Unit.

One red flag is when an employer holds documents, Roy said. Another is if an employer threatens to call Immigration and Customs Enforcement to have them deported if they report any of the conditions or situation.

“If they try not to work, they are a lot of times coerced into working and in some instances, there's physical harm,” Roy said.

For other foreigners, they can be promised jobs in restaurants, nails salons or at massage parlors, but are then forced into sex work, Roy added.

“What we find in a lot of in a lot of instances is folks don't realize they're being threatened,” Roy said. “So they either don't realize they're being trafficked, or they have a fear of talking to or seeking help from anybody in the field, whether it's a service provider or law enforcement.”

For state law enforcement, the focus has been on sex trafficking, and most of the cases involve minors.

In 2022, SLED played a role in 416 cases involving human trafficking, which included 399 victims under 18 years old, according to the report. About 98 percent of the cases involved sex trafficking.

SLED led four commercial sex operations to combat human trafficking and arrested 13 “sex buyers,” according to the report.

“Raising awareness of human trafficking is crucial, and we need everyone working together to help fight human trafficking,” SLED Chief Mark Keel said. “With more knowledge, and training and understanding of how these crimes were committed, we can better prevent and protect those that are most vulnerable.”

Familial trafficking, when a family member exploits a victim, is a significant problem in South Carolina, according to Jennequia “Nikki” Brown, a human trafficking program coordinator with the task force.

“I have seen cases where parents have trafficked their children in order to make ends meet when they are living in poverty,” Brown said.

In some cases, children get into the sex trafficking to provide for themselves, and those in foster care are at a much higher risk, Brown said.

Those children are often lured in by predators they meet on social media, like Instagram and Snapchat, and gaming platforms like Twitch, Brown said.

More calls have been coming in to the National Human Trafficking Hotline. In 2022, there were 277 reports of victims of human trafficking, an increase from 206 in 2021 and 179 in 2019. Of those 277 victims, 117 were involved in sex trafficking, 132 involved in labor trafficking, 12 were involved in both, and 16 were unknown.

Greenville had the highest number of reported human trafficking with 18 cases, followed by Charleston, Richland and Horry counties. Wilson noted that the statistics were metrics of awareness and did not necessarily mean trafficking was higher in those areas.

“Now sometimes reports don't bear out to be anything other than we saw something suspicious, but the fact that people are calling and reporting is good,” Wilson said.