Recognizing the signs: Auburn woman breaks silence on human trafficking
BELLEVUE, Wash. - January is recognized as Human Trafficking Prevention Month, a time to raise awareness about the issue of human trafficking and its impact.
Captain Landon Barnwell with Bellevue Police says their detectives have seen a year-over-year increase in human trafficking cases. They're averaging six to 12 cases a year.
Last year’s youngest victim was just 11 years old.
"We get a lot of visitors," Capt. Barnwell said. "We get a lot of people that pass through Bellevue. We have a lot of hotels, which is primarily a lot of the locations where we may see this type of activity."
Across Washington State, the National Human Trafficking Hotline saw 202 sex or labor trafficking cases in 2023. Of those cases, 367 victims were involved.
Putting a face to the sex trafficking crisis
Local perspective:
A 34-year-old woman from Auburn is sharing her story of survival. For over eight years, she was taken and forced into sex trafficking. She was manipulated and threatened transported from hotel to hotel and forbidden to see her son.
She doesn't want to be identified but hopes through her story, she can empower someone going through what she did, will speak out or for you to spot the signs.
"It was like living two lives," she said.
Born in Auburn, her childhood was far from idyllic, it was a facade, keeping up with appearances of normalcy while hiding the turbulence she lived at home.
"My dad was very abusive to my mom. In turn, my mom was very abusive to me," she said.
She was physically and sexually abused as a child. At 13, she found herself living out in the streets after being kicked out of her home. Finding herself alone and vulnerable, she navigated a world determined to exploit her.
"He was a pedophile, and he sexually abused me as well, and he made me sell his drugs for him in North Seattle," she said.
She was recruited, coerced to sell crack cocaine, earning a mere dollar for every deal for a year until a group of strangers saved her. She returned home at the age of 16, hoping for stability. In reality, this would only shape her perspective on relationships.
"At 17, I got pregnant," she said.
Another tumultuous relationship, which unraveled when she turned 21. She felt relief, but there was an unfamiliar independence she didn’t know how to cope with.
"That's when the partying started, because I never partied," she said. "I didn't go to the clubs, and then that's how I met my trafficker."
Her life quickly changed. He isolated her and moved into her home. After years of enduring abusive relationships, she was unable to stand up for herself. He used her son as leverage.
"He said you need to pack a bag for you and your son and my uncle is on his way to come pick us up, and we're going to Portland," she recalled.
Timeline:
From Portland, she was taken to California where the cycle repeated itself for the next eight years as she was sent across the country.
"It's made to seem very chaotic, but it's very organized," she said. "It's torture. You're held against your will, in hotel rooms, in your own house, in your own bedroom, and you were beat viciously."
Despite the pain, there’s only one reason she remained compliant.
"I didn’t want to go out that way," she said. "I refused to leave my son in the world with people like him."
There are countless signs she wishes people had noticed earlier. Her fearfulness, submissiveness, the bruising she walked around with — just one question can help save someone’s life.
"Maybe ask if someone is okay," she said. "Stop acting like it doesn't exist because maybe it doesn't affect you directly, but we’re all somebody's daughter, somebody’s son, cousin, niece and nephew, and they don't discriminate."
Recognizing the signs of human trafficking
The National Human Trafficking Hotline says labor trafficking includes situations where men, women, and children are forced to work because of debt, immigration status, threats and violence.
Sex trafficking occurs when individuals are made to perform commercial sex through the use of force, fraud, or coercion.
However, in both instances, keeping victims isolated — physically or emotionally — is a key method of control in most human trafficking situations.
Someone may be experiencing sex trafficking if they:
- Want to stop participating in commercial sex but feel scared or unable to leave the situation
- Disclose that they were reluctant to engage in commercial sex but that someone pressured them into it
- Live where they work or are transported by guards between home and workplace
- Are children who live with or are dependent on a family member with a substance-use problem or who is abusive
- Have a "pimp" or "manager" in the commercial sex industry
- Work in an industry where it may be common to be pressured into performing sex acts for money, such as a strip club, illicit cantina, go-go bar, or illicit massage business
Someone may be experiencing labor trafficking or exploitation if they:
- Feel pressured by their employer to stay in a job or situation they want to leave
- Owe money to an employer or recruiter or are not being paid what they were promised or are owed
- Do not have control of their passport or other identity documents
- Are living and working in isolated conditions, largely cut off from interaction with others or support systems
- Appear to be monitored by another person when talking or interacting with others
- Are being threatened by their boss with deportation or other harm
- Are working in dangerous conditions without proper safety gear, training, adequate breaks, or other protections
- Are living in dangerous, overcrowded, or inhumane conditions provided by an employer
The other side:
As a survivor, the 34-year-old has found hope on the other side.
"Surviving is hard, but life afterwards is better," she said. "There’s life outside of it and I prove it to myself every day."
If you or someone you know is a victim or have knowledge of a potential trafficking situation, you can reach out to the Bellevue Police Human Trafficking Unit at viceHT@bellevuewa.gov tips will be kept confidential.
The Source: Original reporting by FOX 13 Seattle reporter Alejandra Guzman.
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