Austin Escorts: Students Will Wear Armbands in Support of Ending Human Trafficking
This semester is only the second one in which the human trafficking course, an elective, has been offered, Kotrla said. Besides social work students, it has attracted seminary students and students in international and church-state studies, she said.
More than 27 million people worldwide are enslaved, according to estimates from the U.S. Department of Justice and the U.S. Department of State, Kotrla said. About 18,000 to 20,000 are brought into the United States yearly, but “within the borders, based on new research, it’s believed that hundreds of thousands are being trafficked internally — with more being trafficked than are brought in.”
Youths — especially runaways — are most often the victims, Kotrla said.
“There are likely 300,000 American youths being exploited in prostitution, stripping, pornography and other ways,” she said. “We used to see them as juvenile delinquents, but we’re beginning to look at them differently, as children being victimized rather than bad kids.”