Group adding space for sex-trafficking victims

End Slavery Georgia hopes to add two facilities in Rome.

A Rome group that works to rescue young women from human sex trafficking is close to being able to provide a home for as many as 70 women at any given time.

Doug Crumbly, CEO of End Slavery Georgia, said an organization his fledgling group works with, called Out of Darkness, rescued 1,000 women in Georgia along during 2016.

“I can’t give you too much information yet but (today) we have two different meetings about two different buildings,” Crumbly said. “One of them would be a shortterm where we would be able to house up to 12 ladies with just about a month and a half to two months renovation. The other facility would be able to house 40-60 after its renovated. It’s growing faster Doug Crumbly, CEO of End Slavery Georgia than Thom (Holt) and I ever thought would be possible.

Crumbly told Rome Rotary Club leaders the local group has already helped with the rescue and relocation of three young women.

When asked about security concerns, Crumbly said the traffickers generally have no need to come to Rome to try to reclaim the victims. “There are so many girls they have access to they just go out and pick up two or three more,” Crumbly said.

Crumbly said that if the girls who come to Rome are in a position where they have to testify in court, they can be taken to a safe facility in an adjacent state.

Traffickers are making as much as $30,000 a week hiring out young women as sex slaves, he told the club.

He said some of the trafficking is attributable to organized crime, but a lot of it involves parents who sell out their young daughters to get money for their next drug fix.

Crumbly said sex trafficking is a problem in virtually every county across Georgia.

“Until men stand up in this fight for women, it’s never going to stop,” Crumbly. “Men are the problem; we’ve got to fight that demand.”