HUNTSVILLE, Ala. (WAFF) – It’s been nearly two weeks since National Human Trafficking Awareness Day. Yet just days ago, investigators with the West Alabama Human Trafficking Task Force arrested 15 people connected to prostitution, drugs and human trafficking.
Members of a human trafficking task force in North Alabama area explain the trauma these victims face. Like the chair of the North Alabama Human Trafficking Task Force, Pat McCay. She doesn’t mince words about what these victims face. “Severe, severe trauma. It’s pretty significant counseling and therapy that they have to go through to just get back to a normalcy that they can live with,” McCay said.
McCay explains the worst part is that human trafficking typically happens right under our noses. Human trafficking involves the use of force, fraud or coercion to lure people into some type of labor or commercial sex act.
The Department of Homeland Security calls the crime a form of “modern day slavery.” The human trafficking task force leader couldn’t agree more. “They’re forced to have many different intimate relationships during a one day period, that is not normal. And that is modern day slavery,” McCay said.
The Development Director at The WellHouse in Birmingham, which is a statewide shelter for sex trafficking victims, says victims of human trafficking tend to have something in common. “Adverse childhood experiences,” said Leah Sanderson. “These can look like sexual assault at a young age, it can look like neglect in the home, it can look like homelessness or being the foster care system at a young age. All of these things can contribute to vulnerability to being trafficked.”
In Madison County Chief Deputy District Attorney, Tim Gann explained they don’t see human trafficking cases very often. Huntsville Police Department representatives said they are not experiencing human trafficking cases here in our area. That’s the good news.
But according to, McCay, that doesn’t mean it’s not happening, and she explains there was a recent uptick in Alabama during the pandemic. “We know that during COVID, that the occurrence of that happened in an increased number,” McCay said. “People lost their jobs, they needed rent money, they are doing drugs, they need drug money. That is some of the impetus if you will, behind the trafficking of their own family members.”
The silver lining is that the problem doesn’t seem to be so bad in Madison County. However, both experts said they’re worried about all of the cases that go unreported.
Both leaders at The WellHouse and the North Alabama Human Trafficking Task Force will be at the Alabama Human Trafficking Summit in Montgomery on January 26th and January 27th.
If you or anyone you know is the victim of human trafficking, call the national hotline at: 1-888-373-7888.
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