BY SCOTT RINGWELSKI | November 8, 2019
Orange County, Calif., which boasts a median household income of $86,000, is often viewed as a relatively safe, wealthy, and conservative region. Most people do not do not equate the area with human trafficking. However, researchers reveal the county to be a destination spot for traffickers.
The official Orange County Human Trafficking Task Force (OCHTTF), set up to fight real time sex and labor slavery in the county, released their latest victim report in 2019. Approximately 80 percent of both victims and traffickers in Orange County travel to the area from other parts of the region, the state, and the entire nation.
"This is due in part to Orange County's tourist attractions, sports venues, beach cities and affluent population," states the report (pdf). "Traffickers bring their victims expecting to have an abundance of customers and higher profits."
There were 415 human trafficking victims rescued in the county in the past two years, compared to 509 in 2015-2016 and 371 in 2013-2014. According to the OCHTTF report, a full 73 percent were new victims in 2017 or 2018. Of that total, 87 percent were trafficked in the sex trade while 12 percent were in forced labor.
The United Nations Orange County Chapter 74th Anniversary event, held last month, highlighted this local tragedy. The United Nations defines human trafficking as "modern slavery" — the act of utilizing threat, force, deception, or coercion for the purpose of exploitation.
Kelly Galindo, a professor of film and media arts at Chapman University's Dodge College, directed an upcoming documentary series on sex trafficking called "26 Seconds." She visited and filmed sex slave survivors around the globe, including in Thailand, Iraq, Cambodia, India, East Africa, Mexico, and the United States.
"It may sound strange, but of all the places I have visited, I have been most afraid right here in Orange County — tough pimps and lots of guns," Galindo said.
The title of Galindo's documentary refers to the UN statistic that every 26 seconds, a child is trafficked somewhere in the world. Each episode of the series guides the audience through a survivor's experience and point of view in a particular country.
Despite continuing attempts to halt trafficking, she said access to trafficking victims has become far easier due to technology.
"We live in this amazing, yet horrifying online world in which one can be anywhere and order up women and children like pizza," Galindo said. "They are delivered to [a] home or hotel. The saturation level is at a whole new increasing intensity."
Please go to The Epoch Times to read the entire article.
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Related:
Human Trafficking is Growing in Orange County
California Dreamin' to California Sh*thole
Let them know:
Orange County California Sheriff's Department
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