On Monday, advocates and caregivers gathered at Summit Church in Estero for training on how to give help to some of the youngest victims of human trafficking.
It’s been three months since the state’s Safe Harbor Ac, a 2012 law that cracks down on human trafficking, was implemented.
Lowell Senitz and his wife Sally run a shelter in Estero helping young girls who are human trafficking victims and have been sexually exploited. They also train people in the community to do similar work finding, rescuing and rehabilitating these young people.
Lowell said trafficking is not just a problem in other countries. It’s a problem here, too.
“They are not specifically in any one ethnic group,” he explained. “They come from all over. They come from gated communities, as well… girls that are recruited at the Coconut Pointe Mall or the Edison Mall.”
Lowell said Florida is listed in the top three states for its number of trafficking victims. Sally has been working with these girls whose age typically ranges from 11 to 17. She said it can be very difficult because many times these victims don’t even want to be helped.
“They often want to return do their trafficker,” she said. “They often think they are loved by their sex trafficker. They believe they love the man that is selling them into prostitution.”
Florida’s Safe Harbor Act increased the fines levied on people charged with human trafficking in the state—and directs a state agency to help these girls once they are found.
Lowell said it’s too early to tell what effect the law has had in Florida so far, but in the meantime he says more people to need to be on the lookout for this problem.
