According to the Human Trafficking Hotline, Mississippi has the second-highest rate of human trafficking cases in the nation at nearly five victims per 100 thousand residents. That’s 175 percent higher than the national average. In a recorded video, Attorney General Lynn Fitch says there’s been a spike in calls made to emergency hotlines, and immediate sheltering needs for victims have nearly doubled during the pandemic. “We hired a team of investigators dedicated to working with federal, state and local partners against traffickers," says Fitch. "We’re engaged in public education to empower Mississippians to spot it, and stop it. And we’re helping victims recover without shame or blame. Traffickers isolate their victims and drain them of hope.”
Activists are calling human trafficking another type of pandemic that has been ongoing for years. Suzie Harville is CEO and founder of Advocates for Freedom in Biloxi, a non-profit raising awareness of human trafficking in Mississippi. She says kids are the most targeted group for trafficking in the state, and nationally 500 thousand kids become victims of human trafficking every year. “We are losing entire generations every year,” says Harville. “We’re not gonna have world leaders, we’re not gonna have a workforce, people wanting to change the world. The average life span of a traffic victim is five years. Some of them don’t get to live that long.”
January is Human Trafficking Awareness Month, and Harville tells parents to warn their children to stay in groups when in public and avoid talking to strangers online to lower their risks of being targeted by traffickers.
