Hospitality front and centre in fight against sex trafficking
This is a global problem and you can be part of the solution.
New app TraffickCam is just one initiative that promises to help catch sex traffickers that operate out of hotel rooms.
Human trafficking is a hidden crime that can occur anywhere – sometimes right under your nose. It is a widespread and extremely profitable crime with Unicef estimating that 21 million people are victims of trafficking every year and sexual exploitation is rife. Sex trafficking is a form of modern day slavery that forces children and adults, both male and female to engage in commercial sex acts against their will. Most victims are recruited when they are very young, coerced through drugs, violence, debt and intimidation.
Sex traffickers commonly use hotels as a base for the sexual exploitation of adults and children and evidence of sex trafficking can be just as easily found in five-star resorts as rent-by-the-hour motel establishments. Using hotels to ply their illegal trade is a preference of sex traffickers because they can get in, make money, and move out before they attract too much attention. The risk of this occurring is higher in hospitality properties where there are sub-contracted staff, migrant workers, lack of policy and enforcement, and lack of awareness in staff.
A new app called TraffickCam aims to help in the fight against sex trafficking, travellers can download the free mobile app and anonymously photograph hotel rooms. The data is then uploaded to an enormous national database that can be used by law enforcement and investigators to locate victims and their pimps.
TraffickCam was developed by the American social action organisation Exchange Initiative and researchers at Washington University in St Louis. The app is available for iPhone and iPad at the App Store and for Android devices at Google Play.
The premise of the app is very simple: when a trafficker uploads an image of his victim to a sex website, features in the image such as patterns in the carpeting, furniture, room accessories and window views can be matched against the database of traveller images, providing a list of potential hotels where the photo may have been taken. Early testing of the app is reported to have shown an 85 percent accuracy.
Currently the TraffickCam database contains 1.5 million photos from more than 145,000 hotels in every major metropolitan area of the US. It does not store any personal or identifying information other than the phone’s GPS location and any images that include people are also rejected from the database. “The first time we were able to help law enforcement identify a hotel where a trafficked child had been photographed, we realised that our travel experience was valuable in the fight against trafficking,” said Molly Hackett, principal of Exchange Initiative and Nix.
“Our pivotal moment for developing the app came when we couldn’t identify a motel room. We connected the vice squad with our associates in that city, but it took three days to find the girl. That seemed way too long, given today’s technology.”
With criminals taking advantage of technology to advertise and coordinate the sex trafficking industry, it is an excellent idea for the hospitality industries worldwide to adapt new technologies to fight against this despicable trade. Another way to be part of the fight against the sex trafficking trade is to ensure that all hospitality staff are aware of what suspicious activity can look like, in and around your accommodation establishment and know how to report it.
Check in staff should be vigilant of guests who use a credit card to book a room but then pay their bill with cash. Also suspicious, is an older male guest with no luggage and much younger females (made-up to look older), the girls may not speak the same language as the man and may also look dazed and confused.
Other tells may be seeing constant flow of men coming and going, or hanging around a room. Housekeepers may notice a room that has a DND for days on end, and a room that is being used for sex trade may have large amounts of condoms and lubricants lying around.
If hotel staff notice anything unusual or suspicious they should know to report the matter to hotel management, who in turn should have a clear policy to manage the situation, and they should know who to contact.
Agencies that deal with this crime, may differ depending on the country or state you are in. But The Polaris Project that works to combat slavery of all kinds has just released an ingenious map to identify local trafficking-fighting agencies all over the world.
Mandy has over 17 years of accommodation and tourism industry writing experience and is Editor of AccomNews & Resort News, Publisher of SchoolNews & Director of Multimedia Pty Ltd. She is a retired registered nurse with a 25-year NHS career that followed a few unforgettable years in hotel housekeeping.
