New York has seen a spike in sex trafficking cases during the worst of the pandemic. “It’s the deadly combination of people losing their jobs, increasing poverty, and many victims sheltering in their homes with abusers,” Dorchen Leidholdt, director of the Center for Battered Women’s Legal Services at Sanctuary for Families, told The Telegraph.
With COVID-19 restrictions costing people their jobs, many in New York found themselves unable to afford housing and seeking shelter. According to Polaris, the number of New Yorkers seeking emergency shelter nearly doubled between April and September of 2020. Unfortunately, instead of safety and support, traffickers are preying on persons seeking shelter, especially children at foster care homes.
A former Brooklyn human trafficking prosecutor shared that New York was experiencing “an uptick in recruitment of children outside child welfare centers.” Poor responses by New York law enforcement have had a significant role to play in the increase in trafficking. Advocates say the pandemic caused a breakdown in communication between advocates and law enforcement with a resulting decrease in arrests of traffickers.
But the New York Police Department (NYPD) has never had a sterling record when it comes to handling trafficking cases. One survivor shared her story of being sex trafficked at the age of 13. When she was finally found by the police, the experience increased her trauma instead of bringing relief.
Persons seeking shelter and trafficking survivors reporting their cases to the police deserve support, not to be made even more vulnerable than they were to begin with.
Freedom United urged the global communities to join the campaign to help protect a very vulnerable population in the U.S. today: runaway and homeless youth. There are over 4 million homeless youth in the U.S. today and all are at high risk of trafficking.
