BWI, Dulles human trafficking transit points | WJLA.com

http://www.wjla.com/articles/2012/01/bwi-dulles-human-trafficking-transit-points-71805.html

Source: WJLA.com

By Pamela Brown January 24, 2012 - 06:32 pm

http://bcove.me/x75e8jz0

New York, Philadelphia, Atlanta to BWI Airport - it's a common route for travelers. But for sex and labor traffickers, it's a pipeline for their victims, according to ICE Homeland Security Investigations.

A map below shows some of the hot spots, like Montgomery and Prince George’s counties, where trafficking victims are commonly brought after arriving at transit points like BWI or Dulles airport.

Katya is one woman out of thousands of victims who walked out the doors of a local airport and into a world of sex slavery.

"They kept telling me you are nothing, you are garbage,” she says. “If you stop making thousands we will sell you."

Federal authorities estimate dozens of potential human trafficking victims transit through BWI and even more at Dulles airport every year. But often times, the cases go unreported.

Officials say it's so hard to crack down on this crime because the victims are hidden in plain sight. They often times walk through the airport, out the door, undetected by everyone around them.

TSA and Customs and Border patrol officers are trained to look for telling signs of a trafficker and victim. But officials say it's also up to travelers to say something, if they see something.

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