SONHS puts human trafficking front of mind for clinicians in the region, an epicenter for this global health crisis Invisible No More
By Robin Shear
At 14, “Melissa” was abducted and forced into sex traf cking. “I got angry with God,” she said on video, recalling her lowest point before a local nonpro t helped her escape. “I told [God], that’s it. I can’t survive this anymore. I was going to commit suicide...Most of the girls in there don’t think they could get out.” Tens of millions of human traf cking victims, from young to elderly, exist among us, forced to stay silent and invisible—blend in, shut up, or disappear forever. In the U.S., Florida, California, and Texas are the top three states impacted, with South Florida at the epicenter of the crisis statewide. “Despite this global epidemic, we are not educating our providers to recognize who they see in their practices,” said Dr. Deborah Salani. It is “very, very alarming,” she added, that 64 percent of traf cked individuals are seen by a health care provider while captive without being identi ed as such on examination—despite often-glaring “red ags” signaling the particularly brutal brand of long-term trauma and neglect they experience.
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