Modern-Day Slavery in Louisiana is Not Just in Prison Farms - Sex Trafficking is Rampant
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Modern Day Slavery in Louisiana, Sex Trafficking Video
Some call it sex trafficking. Others call it modern-day slavery. One Louisiana parish, Caddo, has the highest number of child and adult victims recovered in the state—with 22 confirmed cases of human trafficking in 2015, according to the Louisiana Department of Children & Family Services data.
But it's not all about the numbers. There is a real human cost.
"Julie" —her real name is withheld in order to protect her identity—was nine when her mother started selling her to men to pay for drug money, said Caddo Parish's juvenile probation director Laurie McGehee.
Julie's parents had also taught her older sister to recruit other children.
When the Department of Children & Family Services became involved in the case, staff relocated Julie to a different parish for her safety. She's currently living in a group home.
Trafficking touches almost every parish in the state.
Louisiana had 244 cases of human trafficking in 2015, DCFS data shows. One hundred and four of those cases involved children
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“If you look at the data, there [are] more slaves in the world today than at any time in history,” said George Mills, Trafficking Hope in Baton Rouge's executive director. “But we don’t want to call it that.”
Over the past four years, Louisiana has received close to $3 million in federal funds to aid efforts to combat human trafficking.
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