Play Live Radio
Next Up:
0:00
0:00
0:00 0:00
Available On Air Stations

First human trafficking conference held in First State

Delaware State Police

Delaware’s first conference on human trafficking was held in Dover last week.

Zoe Ministries Executive Director Yolanda Schlabach applauded the recent formation of a new task force to address human trafficking.

The task force includes members of Homeland Security, the Department of Justice and the Delaware State Police.

“It’s because of the formation of that task force that we’ve had our first three human trafficking arrests since September,” Schlabach said. “We’ve had three traffickers identified and ten adult women identified as victims.”

Schlabach was in tears at the sight of over 600 conference attendees.

She said the goal of the conference was to help agencies take a deeper dive into their policies and procedures when it comes to addressing human trafficking.

“We have now a state full of professionals that are recognizing that this is indeed a problem that we have in our state and we simply have not recognized it,” Schlabach said.

But Schlabach said Delaware has to make up ground on the issue, calling it behind states like New Jersey by 12 years or more.

She added the First State needs to improve training and victim service infrastructure while working to prosecute more human trafficking cases.

Jeff Barrows’ Ohio-based non-profit Gracehaven works to help adolescent female sex trafficking victims.

He told the conference that with tens of thousands of children across the nation being exploited every day, more needs to be done to train healthcare providers and others what to do if they suspect they’re dealing with a potential trafficking victim.

“A significant percentage of these victims – while they’re being trafficked – actually come into healthcare,” Barrows said. “But the vast majority of healthcare professionals have not been trained and that’s nationally, not just here in Delaware.”

Barrows says things to watch for are signs another person is controlling an individual, red flags such as someone unable to provide their address, and indicators of physical abuse.