Workers from Connecticut’s hotel industry took part Thursday in a training session on how to spot potential victims of human trafficking.
The Connecticut Lodging Association, the Department of Children and Families, law enforcement and New Haven based anti-trafficking group Love 146 hosted the training, which is among the first of its kind for the industry in Connecticut. It follows a new state mandate requiring all lodging industry employees be trained to spot victims, traffickers and activities associated with the underground sex trade.
“We are perceived as one of the places where human trafficking is easily accessible and we want to dismiss that myth” Ginny Kozlowski, the executive director of the Connecticut Lodging Association, said.
Experts said that with more trafficking advertised online and carried out in hotels and not on the street, it’s often hotel and motel workers, not the police, who are the first, and sometimes only, line of defense for people being sold for sex.
“If they know how to spot the red flags then they’re going to be able to know what to look for and what to report to law enforcement,” Erin Williamson, survivor care program director of Love 146, said.
Those red flags can include rooms where multiple guests are coming and going, adults checking in with children who appear malnourished or disheveled and multiple pornography rentals to rooms where children are present.
Officials from the state Department of Children and Families said the number of Connecticut youth who are potential victims of human trafficking is rising.
Local
They saw approximately 133 children referred in 2015 and preliminary numbers for 2016 estimate about 195 children referred to the agency.
“This really provides an opportunity to train the hotel, motel and lodging folks across the state and help them partner with us to find people across the states,” Tammy Sneed, director of Gender Responsive Adolescent Services at DCF, said.
Leaders at the training said that with more hotel workers in the state armed with information on what to look out for, there’s a hope that one day they can bring this dangerous criminal industry to an end.
“We will have reduced the number of people that are victims of human trafficking, not only here, but across the country, globally,” Kozlowski said.
To learn more about Love 146, visit love146.org.
