by Emily Vespa, North Carolina Health News
November 15, 2024

By Emily Vespa

Human traffickers are trickling into western North Carolina to exploit the vulnerability left by Hurricane Helene, a law enforcement representative warned at a recent meeting of the Carolina Human Trafficking Commission north.

Anti-trafficking leaders said they expect to see more traffic as communities begin long-term recovery efforts.

The storm’s devastation stripped people of their basic needs, leaving survivors at greater risk of human trafficking, which is defined as the use of force, fraud or coercion to exploit someone for labor or sex. At the same time, the storm and its aftermath changed traffic prevention and enforcement efforts.

While the region is full of well-intentioned nonprofits and outside volunteers, bad actors can slip into the mess — especially since law enforcement has been removed from typical disaster response duties, said Marc Nichols, a consultant in law enforcement. , member of commission and retired North Carolina State Highway Patrol Cmdr.

Now, “Atlanta cartels are pushing people into South Carolina, North Carolina, trying to recruit and find victims,” ​​Nichols said at the commission’s hearing late last month.

A spokesman for the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Western District of North Carolina said in an email that the office has not filed human trafficking charges in the district since Helene, but “the safety and well-being of all communities in Western NC is our priority and we are fully committed to bringing to justice those who seek to profit from criminal acts and the exploitation of vulnerable populations.”

risks

North Carolina was a hotbed for traffic even before the storm, partly because between its major interstate highways and its large agricultural industry, which requires cheap labor. State ranked 10th nationally for cases reported to the National Human Trafficking Hotline in 2023. The hotline identified 235 cases of human trafficking in North Carolina, which is likely a small fraction of the total.

Natural disasters exacerbate factors such as food and housing instability, which can make people vulnerable to trafficking, said Leanne McCallum Desselle, research analyst and provider of training and technical assistance at RTI International. They also create job opportunities that may be attractive to at-risk populations.

“People can come and say things like, ‘I have food and shelter and clothing for you, but you have to come with me now,'” said McCallum Desselle, who studied the link between human trafficking and disasters. “Offers that are too good to be true or salaries that are too good to be true can be really enticing when you’ve lost everything.”

Danyelle Smith, Co-Executive Director at The Bridge Internationala Boone-based anti-trafficking nonprofit, told the commission that the stress of the storm can trigger people’s maladaptive coping mechanisms. That could mean a increased substance usewhich traffickers can then exploit TO coerce or control victims.

Asheville Anti-Trafficking and Sexual Violence Nonprofit Our Voice has heard reports from law enforcement and victims of forced labor in post-Helene cleanup efforts, said Rita Sneider-Cotter, its executive director. Some of these cases turned into sex trafficking, she said at the commission meeting.

When the storm hit telecommunications and internet infrastructure, causing a damage estimated at 101 million dollarstook down Our Voice’s 24/7 crisis line for trafficking survivors in Buncombe, McDowell and Transylvania counties. A Jackson County nonprofit, the Center for Domestic Peacetook over the hotline for about two weeks, Sneider-Cotter said.

“It brought tears to my eyes to have that happen because I had no cell reception, and so trying to figure out how to even change that hotline was quite a task,” Sneider-Cotter said.

Our Voice is back to operating its crisis line and offering free support services during limited hours. Sneider-Cotter said the group is bracing for an influx of needs as recovery efforts continue.

“We’ve already been in a very bad housing crisis, especially in Buncombe County, but really all of western North Carolina,” Sneider-Cotter told the commission. “This disaster is only going to exacerbate that and we know it’s going to cause an increase in traffic.”

Finding safe shelter is especially important for survivors of trafficking, who are more likely to relapse, said Nichols, the law enforcement consultant. He said traffickers, even those associated with criminal groups, look like ordinary people. Law enforcement has been working to house volunteers, but it’s still in “reaction mode,” Nichols said, so it’s hard to say whether the law enforcement community has the manpower to screen every group that comes in.

Dean Duncan, a professor at UNC Chapel Hill and an Asheville resident who leads The No Rest Projectan anti-trafficking initiative targeting youth in North Carolina, said it has seen misinformation about child trafficking on social media, including false statements that dozens of children in Spruce Pine were unaccounted for after the storm.

A long-term concern

Although it has been nearly two months since Helene crossed western North Carolina, the risk of traffic in the region will only increase. In long-term disaster recovery, McCallum Desselle said, workers who help rebuild – often migrants on temporary work visas or who are in the country without legal authorization — are some of the most vulnerable to labor trafficking.

After Hurricane Katrina, hundreds of guest workers, tied to employers through temporary visas, came to the United States to take on low-wage repair work on the Gulf Coast. Some were recruited to fill the vacancies left by the evacuees.

A shipbuilding and repair company, Signal International, in 2006 enticed the Indian workers in a labor trafficking scheme with the false promise of becoming legal permanent residents of the US. More than 225 workers, who were forced to live in squalid labor camps and repairing damaged oil rigs, the company sued. One group won a $14 million judgment, and Signal International settled another lawsuit for $20 million.

In 2007, a district court in North Carolina awarded a group of Thai laborers a nearly $1 million judgment against a company they claimed held them captive. sometimes with weaponswhile they were being transported from North Carolina to New Orleans to demolish buildings. One New Orleans Disaster Recovery Workers Survey Found that nearly half were not paid in full for their work and 55 percent were not paid for overtime.

Another major risk group, said McCallum Desselle, is children. “They can experience sex trafficking at the hands of family members, sometimes caused by substance use or trauma or lack of economic opportunity,” she said, especially when they are out of school for weeks at a time.

Most school districts affected by Helene have reopened, The Asheville Citizen-Times reported. Children of Yancey County he will go back to school on monday.

Last week, Nichols said he plans to meet with state Senate Majority Leader Phil Berger’s team to discuss anti-trafficking efforts. NC Newsline reported that the legislature could consider an $830 million Helene aid package in its four-day session next week, but it is unclear whether a bill will be introduced or what it will contain.

“We will do everything we can to prevent this horrific crime from occurring,” Nichols said. “I’ve interviewed and talked to a lot of victims, survivors, and it’s just hard to describe the trauma these people live with every day.”

For Helene’s survivors, McCallum Desselle said to remember that “not all help is good help.”

“If you’ve been affected by the storm, make sure when you accept help, support, that you’re using vetted resources,” McCallum Desselle said. “So looking at local government, federal government, established nonprofits. Really bending over backwards to make sure you can check out who I am and what I’m doing.”

This and is republished here under a Creative Commons license.