JACKSONVILLE, Fla. -- It's been called a growing worldwide epidemic - a form of modern day slavery that many people don't realize hits close to home. Nearly 800,000 humans are trafficked across international borders every year, and thousands are brought here to the United States.
"If that was my daughter what would I do, how would I act," Dante Amodeo, a father and author from Jacksonville Beach asked himself.
Human trafficking is an estimated $32 billion issue that he never imagined would take him halfway across the world to Phnom Penh, Cambodia. Just months after learning about child sex trafficking, he felt moved to do something. Earlier this month, Amodeo traveled 10,000 miles to the poverty-stricken captial to document brothel after brothel, where thousands of girls are bought and sold into sexual slavery.
"These girls are in it against their will and they are in fear for their life if they do not perform."
But that was just a glimpse into another problem that Amodeo now sees much closer to home. According to the Human Trafficking Awareness Coalition, Florida is one of the top three destinations for international traffickers, and over half of the 18,000 victims brought to the United States each year, half are children.
Sean Wrench, founder of Forsaken Generation Homeless Project, recently hosted Freedom Fest in Jacksonville Beach, to bring awareness to child sex trafficking and homeless issues in Northeast Florida.
"This is something people find hard to believe is happening right here in my own backyard."
In addition to the international trade, Wrench says growing homeless populations have also led to an increase in domestic child sex trafficking. In Florida, close to 50,000 children are homeless today, and 1,300 in Duval County alone. The National Human Trafficking Resource Center says of 300,000 children are prostituted in the United States every year, and 99 percent are runaways between the ages of 12 and 14.
"According to the US Justice Department, one in four of those children will be taken off the streets and forced into prostitution against their will."
The Department of Children and Families has investigated 10 cases of child sex trafficking in Northeast Florida in 2011, and 30 since January of 2010. Representatives say they believe the problem in our area is much more common than that, however.
The National Human Trafficking hotline received 620 calls for help from Florida in 2010, and more than 50 were from Jacksonville.
"We'll never know the number of girls that have been through the grill and died that won't even make it to a statistical database," said Amodeo, "but each one of those girls is a real girl."
He says statistics don't tell the whole story, though, because many instances are never caught, reported, or prosecuted. Despite efforts by the Department of Justice to organize task forces nationwide last year, including one in Jacksonville, there is no uniform way of collecting data and tracking the complete threat.
While he wants the issue in the forefront, Amodeo worries big numbers will scare people into believing they can't help, something he thought in the beginning, but now that he has seen evidence both abroad and at home. He vows to continue to make a difference...one story at a time.
There are many signs common among victims of human and sex trafficking. If you know someone that exhibits abnormal behaviors, poor physical and mental health, and a lack of self control they may be a victim.
For help, contact abuse hotlines.
National Child Abuse Hotline
1-800-4.A.CHILD
National Center for Missing and Exploited Children
1-800-THE.LOST
National Human Trafficking Resource Center
1-888-373-7888
