Editorial: Fight sex trafficking in tourist industry

Sex trafficking in Hawaii’s tourism industry has kept itself below the radar of many hotels, and moving below the radar is exactly how the traffickers like to keep things.

But “out of sight, out of mind” cannot become the guiding principle here, however shrouded in darkness the practice might be. There are real victims in need of help, most of them ill-equipped to reach out for it.

And it may be much more of a homegrown problem than most realize. The word “trafficking” suggests victims who are transported over distances, which of course does happen. But experts say the use of coercion in the sex trade also can be common among people known to each other, even within families. Victims have been as young as elementary school age.

Some of these chilling observations have been brought out this week in a statewide symposium series presented to leaders across the visitor sector, with presentations by advocacy groups such as the locally based nonprofit agency aiding trafficking victims, Ho‘ola Na Pua, and the national antitrafficking organization Polaris Project.

The core problem, said Jessica Munoz, president and a founder of Ho‘ola Na Pua, is that sex trafficking frequently is directed and backed by organized crime networks, while the public and private resources to counter it are insufficient and poorly coordinated.

The idea of kicking off this statewide discussion is to raise awareness of the need for training and improved surveillance.

Up until now, said Elaine McCartin, there’s been relatively little such surveillance in Hawaii. McCartin, corporate partnership and training manager for Polaris Project, said that in 2018, nearly 11,000 calls reporting sex trafficking came through the organization’s hotline (1-888-373-7888). Only 48 of those cases were from Hawaii, she said.

The hotel industry is key to a better response for Hawaii. In an era in which a trafficker could go online to book a hotel room for a sex worker and handle check-in remotely through an app, it can be difficult to spot illicit activity.

Difficult, but not impossible. At the symposium held Monday on Oahu, industry leaders were briefed on ways to recognize that someone may be under a trafficker’s control. Someone who appears to be a minor sitting in the bar. Someone exhibiting fearful or submissive behavior.

Many hotels need protocols for how to respond when they spot something, McCartin said. Businesses must increasingly recognize they have a legal and moral part to play in defense of victims.

Employees should be trained not to intervene when they see something suspicious, she emphasized — there can be an unpredictable, even violent response — but to make note of details and descriptions that could help law enforcement later.

The protocol should be to report it to a superior, with management contacting the hotline; McCartin said they have local contacts and social service providers best equipped to respond, to support prosecution and to protect the victim. Only if there’s imminent danger of violence should 911 be called, she added.

There could be much better legislation to help the victims as well. These, as McCartin noted, include laws providing steps for criminal-record expungement for those who committed crimes under duress. That way, a survivor is better able to gain a fresh start by finding employment, establishing a bank account and renting a place.

Some may argue that sex workers are in control of their own lives. Munoz said that can be true, but for only a small minority.

Surely that cannot obscure the many more who are being victimized and trafficked, counting on the community to perceive their plight — and to act.