news-record.com

GREENSBORO — In the past three years, North Carolina has seen a 260 percent increase in the number of human trafficking victims, according to the North Carolina Coalition Against Human Trafficking.

More than half are adult victims with 38 percent forced into prostitution and an equal number forced into labor, according to statistics from agencies across the state compiled by the group. Raw data was not available to review.

Nationally, a report released today of suspected cases of trafficking from January 2008 through June 2010 shows that 82 percent involved sex trafficking.

The U.S. Department of Justice’s Bureau of Justice Statistics looked at 2,515 cases of suspected human trafficking during that time period.

About 30 percent of cases open for at least a year were confirmed to be some type of human trafficking. About 38 percent were found not to be human trafficking with the remainder still under investigation at the end of the study period.

North Carolina has stepped up efforts to battle human trafficking in recent years, adding more rapid-response teams to investigate possible cases and training for law enforcement officers on how to identify victims.

“When you look at the numbers, it’s not that many,” said Danielle Mitchell, anti-human trafficking program coordinator for World Relief North Carolina. But based on what victims say, “there are hundreds of other people enslaved” who have not gotten help, she said.

World Relief, which used to handle a couple of cases a year but now sees a couple every month, only works with foreign-born victims, Mitchell said.

Both legal and undocumented immigrants, as well as U.S. citizens, can be victimized, she said.

The national report used data collected for the Human Trafficking Reporting System, which was designed to measure the performance of federally funded task forces.

For confirmed cases of trafficking, the report found:

Out of 527 victims:

In labor trafficking:

• 62 percent were over age 25
• 63 percent were Hispanic
• 17 percent were Asian
• 67 percent were undocumented immigrants
• 28 percent were qualified immigrants

In sex trafficking:

• 13 percent were over age 25
• 26 percent were white
• 40 percent were black
• 83 percent were U.S. citizens

Out of 488 suspects:

• 81 percent were male
• In sex trafficking, suspects were predominantly black (62 percent)
• In labor trafficking, suspects were predominantly Hispanic (48 percent)
• 144 arrests

Read more in Friday’s News & Record or e-Edition.