Hundreds of teenage girls are being forced into prostitution right here in Florida. Their pimps work mostly undetected, because state laws are inadequate to stop human trafficking. This could soon change. As Whitney Ray tells us, lawmakers are pushing bills to allow the state to lock up human traffickers for life and protect victims who get caught selling sex.
Breaking the silence and throwing her weight behind reform efforts… Attorney General Pam Bondi spoke out Wednesday for the victims of human trafficking.
“We are unified in our resolve to make Florida a zero tolerance state for sex trafficking and human servitude,” said Bondi.
Hundreds of teenage girls are sold into slavery, right here in Florida.
They’re often lured away from home over the internet by older men who promise a better life, but once they get them away from their parents, their lives become a living hell.
A former sex slave shares her story via a video on stophumantrafficking.org.
“If you say something I am going to kill you. That is what he would tell me. He would get a knife and put it to my neck and say he was going to kill me,” she said.
The practice is more common in Miami, Tampa and Orlando, but FSU human rights expert Terry Coonan says more than a 100 sex slaves were rescued in Tallahassee.
“They kept them in a gated neighborhood and they actually trafficked them out at night. It was a delivery service,” Coonan said.
Police want to do more, but state laws are inadequate to deal with the problem. Legislation making human trafficking for sex or labor a first degree felony is moving through the process. There’s also a bill to create safe harbors for the victims.
“If that girl goes into jail, she’s not going to be rehabilitated. The person that’s bailing her out is going to be the person who got her into the mess to begin with,” said Senator Anitere Flores.
By protecting the victims, the bill’s sponsor says the state can catch more human traffickers, and with the increased penalties, possible lock them up for life. The legislation would also require anyone convicted of human trafficking to register as a sex offender, if they ever used force or cohesion to force someone into prostitution.
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