Human trafficking is ‘right under our noses’

A few years ago, a young man who had burned his eyes welding without protection came into the emergency room in Lawton.

There were warning signs he was a victim of labor trafficking, but no one saw it at the time, said Karen Peters, a Lawton nurse who gave a presentation about human trafficking at the University of Oklahoma School of Nursing on Friday morning. The young man blamed himself for his injury, and his employer was with him the entire time and paid cash, she said.

“What did we do? We treated his eyes and sent him out with the guy who brought him in,” she said. She doesn’t know what happened to him afterward.

The National Human Trafficking Resource Center has documented 39 cases of human trafficking in Oklahoma so far in 2017. Two-thirds were cases of sex trafficking, with the others categorized as labor trafficking or some other type. The cases are likely an undercount, because many victims don’t report their abuse.

Victims typically will deny that they’re being trafficked because they fear for their safety, blame themselves for their situation, think no one cares about them or worry about being arrested or deported, Peters said. Though victims may not be ready to accept help immediately, health care providers need to be ready to offer resources they can turn to in the future, she said.

“They believe that nobody cares to help at all. They’re right under our noses, and we don’t see them,” she said.

Human trafficking victims can be any age, gender or nationality. Traffickers also don’t fit a typical profile and may pass themselves off as a concerned boyfriend, sister, friend or employer, she said.

While every case is different, Peters said, health care providers need to be aware of some red flags: unexplained injuries; untreated or poorly treated medical and dental problems, including sexually transmitted infections; signs of neglect like poor hygiene, malnutrition, dehydration, or inappropriate clothing for the weather; and drug or alcohol misuse. Substances can be a way of numbing emotional pain, or a trafficker’s way of maintaining control, she said.

Members of the community also need to be vigilant for signs of labor trafficking, such as people working long hours without breaks or in unsafe conditions, or never going out without supervision from an employer, Peters said. Other warning signs are if a person’s reactions seem inappropriate for the situation, such as if they appear emotionally numb, lash out unnecessarily, or seem to have trouble with memory or concentration, she said.

If you suspect human trafficking, call the Oklahoma Bureau of Narcotics and Dangerous Drugs trafficking hotline, 855617-2288. Tips from the community are one of the biggest weapons against traffickers, Peters said.

“It’s those nosy neighbors that know something’s not right” who often are the ones to alert police, she said.