Q & A with Ted Greenfield
Founder of Invisible Angels and Author of“ God Is in This Fight: How God Made a Way to
Rescue Human Trafficking Survivors”
Q: What do people need to know about human trafficking in the U. S.?
Q: What are some of the challenges of rescuing trafficking victims?
A: To traffickers, each human life— man, woman, boy, girl— is about a $ 200,000-a-year commodity. Victims are raped between eight and twelve times per day. That’ s the price of bondage in the U. S. Up to 70 % of trafficking survivors are trafficked by someone that they know, usually a family member. The survivors that we ' re providing transportation for are not from El Salvador or South America. They are Americans, children and adults, ranging from under 10 years of age to their late 40s. And this is not just happening in big cities. Places like Albany Georgia, Eau Claire, Wisconsin, Ocala Florida, Montgomery Alabama, as well as other small and midsized cities are hotbeds of human trafficking.
A: As we began partnering with rescue organizations, I quickly realized that transportation was the missing link in their recovery scenarios. When trafficking survivors are recovered, they need to be taken to a safe house far away from where the trafficking took place. For their safety and security, they need to be taken to a completely new environment. Trafficking survivors usually are off the grid at a very early age. They don ' t have any identification which makes commercial travel impossible, they don ' t have any family to help them, and they don’ t have financial resources. Survivors often have no belongings with them, just the clothes that they are wearing.
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