Human trafficking does not always happen behind locked doors or in hidden locations. In many cases trafficking happens in plain sight, often in places like hotels, apartment complexes, retail centers, restaurants, truck stops, airports and bus terminals and even schools. This reprehensible act is oftentimes organized and highly structured. Recognizing human trafficking red flags is not only a moral responsibility, but can be a legal duty, particularly for businesses and their employees.
Understanding Human Trafficking
Human trafficking involves the exploitation of a person through force, fraud or coercion for labor, services or commercial sex. Sex trafficking may involve adults or minors who are forced, defrauded and/or coerced into commercial sex and labor trafficking includes people being forced or coerced to work.
Human trafficking doesn’t always look like someone being kidnapped, locked in a room or physically restrained. Traffickers use a wide variety of tactics to control their victims including:
- threats
- manipulation
- debt
- isolation
- addiction
- deportation status
- violence
- false promises
- emotional control
Trafficking can happen to women or men, adults or minors — really anyone from any background, though traffickers often target people who are isolated, financially vulnerable, dependent on others or afraid to seek help.
Why Businesses Become Trafficking Hotspots
Keeping commercial properties safe for employees and visitors alike should be a top priority. Unfortunately, safety isn’t always taken seriously, resulting in trafficking easily occurring at certain locations. Commercial properties become trafficking hotspots because:
- High customer turnover means there aren’t repeat visitors that would notice if something was wrong
- Environments like hotels, gas stations, and rest areas create anonymity where people come and go for short periods of time
- A failure to properly train employees, particularly with respect to awareness of known ‘red flags’
- Poor security measures
- Management prioritizing profits and over safety
Major Trafficking Red Flags Businesses Frequently Ignore
As a business owner, being aware of trafficking red flags could be the difference between saving a life or liability.
The signs are there if you keep your eyes open for:
- Individuals who appear fearful, controlled and/or unable to speak freely
- Someone speaking for another person at all times
- Individuals avoiding eye contact
- Signs of anxiety, bruising or malnourishment
- Signs of sleep deprivation or untreated medical needs
- Repeated visits by different men to one room at a hotel/motel
- Concerning late-night activity patterns
- Excessive requests for linens, towels or room supplies
The reason human trafficking continues to occur is because staff and owners ignore obvious red flags and fail to report these unusual signs or red flags.
Civil Lawsuits Can Help Trafficking Victims Recover
A criminal case focuses on prosecuting the trafficker. While a civil case can look beyond the trafficker and examine whether a business, property owner, hotel, apartment complex or employer failed to take reasonable steps to prevent foreseeable harm.
The warning signs that property owners, managers and employees ignore become legal evidence used to establish liability in court. Incident reports, surveillance footage, employee complaints, prior criminal activity and even online reviews that indicate trafficking signs can and will be used in a civil case.
Taking a human trafficking case to civil court strengthens the healing journey for the victim and allows them to receive compensation for medical treatments, therapy and lost wages. While a criminal case holds traffickers accountable, a civil case holds businesses accountable for their role in allowing this activity to continue.
Preventing Trafficking from Happening
Businesses can take simple actions to prevent human trafficking by regularly training employees on the signs they should look for and how to safely report concerns. Creating clear reporting procedures, victim-centered response practices and internal escalation policies can give employees the power they need to act in the moment and potentially save a life.
Improving security measures should be the first step to prevent this crime from occurring, like adding:
- Working cameras
- Adequate lighting
- Controlled property access
Organizations and businesses should take complaints seriously, investigate suspicious activity immediately, document incidents properly, partner with advocacy organizations like Beloved Atlanta, Receiving Hope Center and Tapestri for additional resources and implement human trafficking awareness training.
Unfortunately, human trafficking survives when businesses ignore obvious warning signs. Owners, managers and employees can either become part of the problem or part of the solution. In the end, those responsible can be held criminally and civilly accountable.
If you or someone you know has been a victim of human trafficking, contact the Isenberg & Hewitt team for a free consultation.