U. of Toledo conference concludes today
The University of Toledo is again hosting a gathering of human trafficking survivors, researchers, and advocates from across the globe as they collaborate on how to end what some are calling modern-day slavery.
“When somebody takes your freedom, and they make money off of you, that’s what it is,” Celia Williamson is the executive director of the Human Trafficking and Social Justice Institute.
The 15th Annual International Human Trafficking and Social Justice Conference is hosting roughly 90 presentations by policymakers, healthcare professionals, social services, and criminal justice agencies today in the Thompson Student Union at UT.
Today is the second day of the event, and general admission is $110, which includes an information packet as well as breakfast and lunch. Group and student rates are also available.
The event is hosted by UT’s Human Trafficking and Social Justice Institute, and the Lucas County Human Trafficking Coalition.
“The purpose of the conference is to get people to network, learn, and take things back to their communities,” Williamson said.
Toledo received national attention when a 2005 federal sting in Harrisburg, Pa., revealed the city was a significant recruitment hub for the sex trade.
Of 177 women and girls involved in the sting, 77, including a 10-year-old girl, were from the Toledo area.
In 2006 The Blade published the series, “Lost Youth: Teenage Sex Trade,” which highlighted Toledo’s emergence as a major recruitment hub at the hands of pimps who were forcing teenagers to have sex for money — rotating them among motels, truck stops, and highway welcome centers across the country.
Last year, the number of investigations into suspected trafficking in Ohio reached the highest level since the state began keeping track.
Law enforcement investigated 202 potential cases of human trafficking in 2017, up nearly 50 percent from the year before, according to the state’s Human Trafficking Commission. The vast majority involved the sex trade.
Three Toledo-area pastors were recently accused of sex trafficking children. One of the three pastors pleaded guilty in May to conspiracy to sex traffic children, obstruction of a sex-trafficking investigation, and two counts of sex trafficking of children.
“I want people to take away a deep sense of social justice and human rights,” Williamson. “I want them to feel empowered, and educated to make a change.”
For more information about the conference, go to traffickingconference.com.