Human trafficking victims find refuge in The Shelter

COLUMBIA — Human trafficking takes place around the world, across the United States and in Columbia, right off U.S. 63 and Interstate 70, according to anti-human trafficking advocates.

According to the U.S. Department of State, more than 800,000 people are smuggled across international borders, millions more being bought and sold within their own country.

In Columbia, The Shelter, a safe house for victims of domestic violence and sexual assault, has helped at least a half dozen women who have been victims of human trafficking. Kelley Lucero, outreach coordinator at The Shelter, said the women find themselves in trouble when they arrive here. They are promised good jobs but are then forced into sexual or domestic slavery, she said.

With U.S. 63 and I-70 running through Columbia, the city has occasionally been a stopping point for those transporting victims of human trafficking.

"The number of those cases is small, but even one is somebody in slavery," said Deb Hume, co-chair of the Central Missouri Stop Human Trafficking Coalition.

The coalition is just one of many groups around Columbia working to end human trafficking. To bring the issue to the public's attention, the coalition is combining forces with Stephens College, MU's anti-human trafficking organization Stop Traffic and the national Not For Sale Campaign, to sponsor Human Trafficking Awareness Week, Sunday through Sept. 20.

"It just sort of shakes you to the core that there is slavery still going on today," Hume said. "You think of it as something that has passed and never was going to happen again."

With the goal of raising people's awareness and inspiring them to take action, the seven events held during the week will focus on a different aspect of ending human trafficking. Stop Traffic, along with other MU organizations, will host two of the events. One of them, Generation Justice: Concert to End Slavery, will raise funds to help prevent human trafficking in Columbia and to build a safe house for victims of human trafficking in Peru. Stop Traffic will also sponsor Abolition in the Park, an anti-trafficking festival in Peace Park.

Kessaya Speckman, vice president of Stop Traffic, hopes the events will move community members to action.

"Both of these will provide opportunities for community members and students to become abolitionists," she said. "We want to provide resources to our community so that they can get involved."

David Batstone, founder of the Not For Sale Campaign against human trafficking, will hold a workshop to teach community members what they can do to stop trafficking in Columbia or around the world.

While the affects of human trafficking might not be as obvious in Columbia as in Peru, Hume said it still happens here and has an effect on the community.

"It is so hidden that they (community members) may not immediately realize that they are affected," Hume said. "It may be someone that is serving them in a restaurant, or it may be someone that is working in a massage parlor, who they may not even realize is possibly here against their will or not free to leave."