A placard of a child sits on a table during a conference on human sex trafficking in Atlanta. FAST FACTS* About 27 million people are victims of human trafficking around the world and nearly half are children under the age of 18.* About 5,000 girls a year are at risk of being sex trafficked in Georgia.* Human trafficking is the fastest-growing industry in the world and second most-profitable behind drugs.* Total annual revenue of human trafficking is $30 billion worldwide.* 48 states and the District of Columbia have laws against human trafficking.Source: “Not in Georgia: Combating Sex Trafficking” seminar
WHAT TO WATCH FOR* Student’s grades start slipping* Girl with much older boyfriends* Girls with low self-esteem* Online predators because prostitution has moved to the Internet* Children connected to gangs in schoolsSource: Former FBI agent Maria Velikonja
ATLANTA – Human trafficking is the fastest-growing industry in the world and second most-profitable behind drugs, but one of the most difficult to prosecute, a former FBI agent said Tuesday.
“We do have a problem here. A lot of these victims don’t come forward because many tend to be extremely fragile, don’t trust law enforcement and don’t wish to testify,” Maria Velikonja, a former FBI agent and prosecutor, said at a two-day seminar on the issue.
Human trafficking often is tied to organized crime, said Velikonja, the keynote speaker at the “Not in Georgia: Combating Sex Trafficking” seminar hosted by the Georgia Department of Education with help from Bryan College in Dayton, Tenn.