Using Public Transportation To Combat Human Trafficking
The average public transportation passenger arrives at their designated bus stop, waits with others in their community for the bus to arrive, boards the bus upon arrival, travels with and picks up more passengers along the way, before exiting the bus to embark on the next step of their journey. As these passengers rely on public transit, operators safely transport them. What passengers and bus operators may not know, is that they likely crossed paths with a human trafficker and/or a trafficked victim. Having read this, you may now be thinking, “no - they didn’t see anything,” or, “that doesn’t happen where I live.” Whatever the thought may be, the sad fact is that human trafficking is much more prevalent today than one would like to believe.
So, what does public transportation have to do with human trafficking – besides the obvious, that a victim could be transported on buses, trains, and other public transit vehicles? The answer: everyone has a role to play in fighting against trafficking to make our communities safer.