Human Trafficking has been a growing issue across West Virginia as well as the country but it is consistently changing, which is therefore making it difficult to fight it. Which is why, the United States Attorney Mike B. Stuart’s office is now working to stop the issue by educating the local nurses, teachers as well as law enforcement about the warning signals.
In the year 2016, the Justice Department made it mandatory for all the United States Attorney offices to make an action plan to combat Human Trafficking. In fact, a task force was developed in West Virginia.
The biggest issue which they are facing is in identifying the kids who are getting trafficked. Be it by their family or a stranger, several abusers would send the kids to school just like any other child. This is a reason why the task force is concentrating on education the ones who communicate with a trafficking victim in order to determine the warning signals and know what they should do if they do suspect trafficking.
The task force’s main priority is to save the victim and later prosecuting in order to restrain such abusers from attempting such acts. But sadly, most victims do not wish to prosecute the abusers, as per a study conducted by Thorn.org. As such, the task force now hopes to educate the law enforcement about how to deal with such victims and help prosecutors develop a good relationship with him/her.
