Orlando 3rd in human-trafficking calls
Leaders: Numbers indicate increased awareness in vulnerable community
Greater Orlando ranks third in the United States for the number of reports to the national humantrafficking hotline, Central Florida leaders announced Thursday — a statistic they said indicated a growing awareness of the problem in a vulnerable community.
“Because of our tourism, because we are transient, because we are growing rapidly, it makes us a community where this type of exploitation is more likely to happen,” said Tomas Lares, founder and executive director of Florida Abolitionist, the regional nonprofit organization devoted to eradicating the problem. “Too often, we don’t know our neighbors, so a house where people are kept for trafficking is more likely to escape notice.”
His remarks came as officials announced recent progress in the fight against the crime — including approval by Orange County commissioners earlier this month to spend nearly $2 million over the next 2½ years to staff the state’s first crisis shelter for human-trafficking victims. Under the agreement, Aspire Health Partners — a major provider of mental-health care and addiction treatment — will pro-
vide therapy and round-theclock care while Florida Abolitionist will handle intake.
“When we receive a call at midnight … having a place to take victims immediately is imperative to helping them be safe,” said Lares, who noted that currently there are few good options. “This will be parallel to what Harbor House has done for Florida for victims of domestic violence.”
Orange County Commissioner Pete Clarke said the shelter will provide 10 beds to start but could be expanded. The undisclosed location should open late this year or early next year, he said.
In 2016, state officials received nearly 1,800 calls of suspected trafficking of children and teens to its Department of Children and Families hotline, Lares said. In addition, the National Human Trafficking Hotline reported this month that Orlando had 790 complaints of adults being trafficked from December 2007 to December 2016.
In sheer numbers, that puts Orlando at 20th in the nation. But based on population size, the city ranks third — behind Washington, D.C., and Atlanta and ahead of Miami, Las Vegas, Sacramento and St. Louis, Mo.
Lares attributes the statistic in part to greater awareness. A growing number of hotels and restaurants post the hotline number — 1-888-373-7888 — for victims and witnesses, and local law enforcement officers have been educated on warning signs of the crime, which largely remains hidden.
“As a father, human trafficking has affected my own household,” said Aaron Maners, Florida Abolitionist’s chief operating officer. One of his daughters was trafficked after running away at age 18. She is now in recovery but not ready to speak publicly, he said.
In Orlando, many of the victims are female and are exploited sexually. But across the state, labor trafficking is believed to be a larger problem, particularly in rural areas where people are enslaved to do agricultural work, Lares said.
Others are made personal or domestic slaves.
A woman in her late 40s identified only as “Lisa” said she was rescued from her trafficker in 2014 when a SWAT team broke down the door of the Orlando home where she and a group of girls forced into prostitution were being held.
“He was a sociopath,” she said. “I went with him when I was 42 and already addicted to drugs, and he used heroin and opiates to reward us for doing what he wanted. I wasn’t good at prostitution, so he made me … his slave. He broke me down. He took my heart, my mind, my soul.”
After five years in captivity, she had to work through a drug treatment program before started to rebuild her life at Samaritan Village, a transitional home for survivors.
“Today I’m doing good,” she said. “I’m just learning to love again — finally.”
The message of hope is an essential one, said Diana Bolívar, a Florida Abolitionist supporter, consultant and the past president of the Hispanic Chamber of Commerce of Metro Orlando.
As a child in Colombia, she was held in captivity for over two years by people who duped her parents into thinking they were caretakers. She was abused, starved and chained, she said. After she was rescued, she came to the United States — where, at age 15, she was attacked by a serial rapist who tried to kidnap her.
“I’ve been a victim of horrific, unspeakable violence,” she said. “Sometimes I can’t believe I’m standing here. But I’m not bitter. I’m strong. I love life. I love people. And I believe there are more good people in this world than bad.”