(photos courtesy of SEA/Port of Seattle)
January’s human trafficking month includes a new pledge to fight it from some key players at SeaTac airport.
The pledge was signed by Port of Seattle commissioners, Alaska and Delta Airlines, and several airport businesses, including Concessions International, HMS Hosts, SSP America, Dufry/Hudson Group, Poke to the Max and 1915 KC House. It’s a promise to raise awareness of human trafficking and to train employees to watch for it. “It’s as simple as ‘you saw something, you say something,’” says Alaska’s Gloria Chow-Vanderwell, “You spot. You stop. You report.”
Dr. Mar Brettman Is director of Businesses Ending Slavery and Trafficking, or BEST, which connects trafficking victims with safe employers, who want to help and are trained in how to help trauma survivors to thrive. Dr. Brettman says, “They’re an incredibly hard working group of folks, who become great employees. There’s often a diversity element. Different lived experiences and different cultural backgrounds is always a benefit.”
Brettman says you can help spot trafficking victims, who are often disoriented, behave submissively toward their companions or are even dressed inappropriately for their destination. All airport employees are trained on how to handle a trafficking report, so if you see something out of the ordinary, talk to any of them and they’ll be able to help you.
King County and especially an international travel hub like SeaTac Airport are prime locations for human trafficking. The same is true where major freeways intersect, like I-5 going north and south and I-90 going east, because they give traffickers easy options for moving their victims. With human trafficking, we often think of the sex trade, but it also frequently involves forced labor, often people brought here by members of their own families to work in businesses, domestic labor where people are forced to work in homes for long hours or for little pay, or indentured servitude, sometimes to pay for transportation to the US, only the bill keeps growing, extending the time and making it impossible to leave. The important thing to remember is if you see something that looks like human trafficking, speak up right away.
