鈥淯nderstand that human trafficking is very, very profitable. You can sell drugs or a gun only once. You can sell a human 12 times in one day.鈥�
Today is Human Trafficking Awareness Day, and those words from underscore the gravity of the problem. Van De Putte on Human Trafficking this morning, focused on how health providers can identify and assist victims. The affected can include anyone from young runaways coerced into sex work and prostitution, to American immigrants promised work but essentially bound into slavery.
Van De Putte spoke to KUT News, addressing the role health providers can play and dispelling some common assumptions about what trafficking actually is and who it affects.
鈥淭exas really leads the nation in the top and toughest laws where it comes to enforcement,鈥� Van de Putte says. But she adds that an emphasis on treatment of trafficking victims can help free many of their entrapment.
Today's Human Trafficking Health Summit featured as speakers. One speaker was Dr. Patricia Crane who two main roles health care providers can play: identifying victims when they鈥檙e in captivity, and caring for their mental and physical issues once they鈥檙e free.
Crane鈥檚 journal paper 鈥淗uman Trafficking: What is the Role of the Health Care Provider?鈥� was also given to participants. It identifies several ways for doctors and nurses to , including indicators like the presence of a controlling third party at the time of examination, signs of physical abuse and more. The paper also includes to ask, including whether a patient is in the present situation of their own free will, or whether they would be harmed if they tried to leave.
Van De Putte emphasizes that doctors and nurses can make a difference. 鈥淚f you have a teenager two or three times at the clinic, repeatedly, you may suspect to ask the question, 鈥楬oney, are you having sex willingly?鈥欌��
One myth Van De Putte seeks to dispel is that trafficking occurs outside the United States, or exclusively among new immigrants to America. (Indeed, doesn鈥檛 even require the transport of a victim from a city or state.) 鈥淭he majority of our human trafficking victims are teenagers, from Texas or other states,鈥� she says.
For more information and to help, the campaign offers numerous resources to combat human trafficking.
