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Human Sex Trafficking in the Bakken | Regional News | willistonherald.com – Williston Daily Herald

Human Trafficking has become a master disguise, yet, daily happens right in plain sight. Sometimes the blindness is willful, as people look away from something they may not want to be involved with.


The problem of human trafficking was discussed in detail at the 2nd Annual Bakken Human Trafficking Summit in Watford City.


“I was human trafficked in the Bakken,” Piper said. “Basically I was serviced out in Stanley, Williston, Tioga, Ray, Dickenson, Watford City, Minot, Bismarck, Wildrose, Crosby, a lot of places. It's a real thing.”


A Trafficker can only be charged with a crime by if they can establish anything through “force, fraud, or coercion that has been committed against the victim(s), by the trafficker, exploiting them.”


The definition of human trafficking is the recruitment, harboring, transporting, or procurement of a person for labor or services for the purpose of involuntary servitude, slavery, or forced commercial sex acts.


“When people are made to do something for someone else's profit that's trafficking,” Dr. Analena Lunde said.


Today Lunde is Human trafficking Navigator for ND Human Trafficking Task Force, a Victim Witness Specialist, as well as a Bureau of Criminal Investigation Specialist.


“When I was 17, by that time I was addicted to heroin, methamphetamines and pretty much anything you could slam in my vein,” Nikki Blowers said. “ I ended up out in California, and I was coming down from my drug high. It was then I met my trafficker and he was like, ‘I will help you get off drugs and you can come live with me, and I'll be your boyfriend.' So I was Romeoed or boyfriended in, as it's called.”


It all sounded good, but it was too good to be true.


“He had flashy stuff and money,” Blowers recalled. “He was gonna take care of me, provide me with shelter and all the things I didn't have because I was living on the streets in Reno. It looked enticing, so I said sure. What did I have to lose? But as soon as I stepped off that bus it was like ‘alright, this is what is really happening. I was stuck. He sold me the fairytale. Who doesn't want to be Cinderella?”


According to the National Children of Missing and Exploited Children, vulnerable children will exchange sex for money, food, shelter, cell phone, transportation, clothing, cash cards, etc.


The manner in which human traffickers lure people in by using an individual's vulnerabilities and needs.


In the breakout session for Trafficking and Exploitation in : What Are We Not Seeing


A task force which focused on human trafficking started in 2015, thanks to a grant. The team includes healthcare professionals, dentists, social services, nurses, law enforcement, Highway patrol. Their task force looks at cases and receives training to analyze areas where there are gaps and services needed. The biggest gap the task force identified was EMS and healthcare. Social Services and juvenile court does a great job referring cases.


“One of the biggest questions to ask a patient is are you safe?” Dr. Lunde said. “That is human nature 101. But we forget sometimes.”


Human trafficking always involves three components:


Act; how is a person acquired, recruitment, transporting, or harboring


Means; how is a person exploited cohesion, fraud


Purpose; what is the nature of the exploitation. For commercial sex or forced labor.”


“The exploitation and trafficking from a clinical perspective and survivors perspective is significant,” Lund said. “Victims of human trafficking interact with healthcare, EMS, law enforcement quite a bit. Being a nurse so long in the ER trauma, before I filled all the above positions, I realized that I probably missed a ton of trafficking clients, labor and sex. Human trafficking is a devastating crime.”


“Connecting to support in the community can be incredibly difficult, ‘' Blowers said. “It may come at the expense of their personal safety.”


Several human trafficking survivors in the Trafficking and Exploitation breakout during the summit said that in the emergency room they were shown kindness and compassion, but nobody asked them any questions.


An ER visit is an especially important time for a medical professional to ask questions, as it may be the only time someone who is being trafficked is away from the trafficker who is probably sitting outside in the car. One survivor had 18 visits to the emergency room, said she was a child on the streets.


“You could tell I looked young and should have been in school. To them. I was a prostitute,” she said.


Blowers said she often visited clinics to get tested for STDs.


“It was usually always the same provider,” she said. “She knew I was a prostitute, because that's what I identified as. I specifically went after I was raped by a John. The provider was like here's your medication and just dismissed me. My pimp was literally in the parking lot and nobody, like nobody ever said anything to me. They just were like, here's your meds and sent me on my way. It's like you're a junkie, just constantly dismissed and dismissed one after another.”


The Project is a nonprofit based out of Washington, DC that manages the National Human Trafficking Hotline. They regularly publish reports. A number of years ago Polaris published a report called, “Sex and Redefined in the Typology of Modern Slavery,” https://polarisproject.org.

 

This “Eyes on Trafficking” story is reprinted from its original location.

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PBJ Learning is a leading provider of online human trafficking training, focusing on and prevention education. Their interactive Human Trafficking Essentials is used worldwide to educate professionals and individuals how to recognize human trafficking and how to respond to potential victims. Learn on any web browser (even your mobile phone) at any time.

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EYES ON TRAFFICKING

This “Eyes on Trafficking” story is reprinted from its original online location.

ABOUT PBJ LEARNING

PBJ Learning is a leading provider of online human trafficking training, focusing on awareness and prevention education. Their interactive Human Trafficking Essentials online course is used worldwide to educate professionals and individuals how to recognize human trafficking and how to respond to potential victims. Learn on any web browser (even your mobile phone) at any time.

More stories like this can be found in your PBJ Learning Knowledge Vault.