CLAYTON COUNTY, Ga. — As Atlanta gets ready to host the FIFA World Cup, the city is raising awareness about human trafficking and how you can help fight it.
Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport is expected to welcome visitors from around the world for the competition.
Channel 2’s Steve Gehlbach was in Clayton County, where city, state and airport leaders discussed how they hope to fight human trafficking.
“In Atlanta, we are never going to stop targeting these traffickers,” Mayor Andre Dickens said.
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It’s a crime hiding in plain site. The average victim of human trafficking is just under 15 years old, officials said.
At the Atlanta airport, officials and corporate partners came together to fight human trafficking.
“We want to make sure every fan and every traveler to our city knows how to report their concerns,” Dickens said.
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City leaders and their partners haven’t been idle in the lead up to the World Cup.
Officials are working with companies like Delta Air Lines and UPS to train and partner with nonprofits and get human trafficking survivors the help they need.
The Atlanta Police Department also says they’re ready for the big event.
“We’ve been training for a year now for the World Cup and we’re re-emphasizing human trafficking training at all levels,” Chief Darin Schierbaum said. “Our seasoned and veteran officers are going through refresher training where they too will learn to see the key indicators.”
Those indicators can include people not handling their own ID or paperwork, staying quiet and deferring to someone else that they’re traveling with.
Police and airport officials said they need the public’s help to fight human trafficking, but the way to help is simple: “See something, say something.”
“Traffickers count on the rest of us not saying anything,” Dickens said. “That’s just now how we want things to go here in Atlanta. We will be vigilant.”
Recently, the Federal Bureau of Investigation named Atlanta as one of the top 14 cities with abnormally high rates of human trafficking.
To respond to this problem in recent years, the Georgia Attorney General’s Office created a unit specifically to fight human trafficking.
In May, Attorney General Chris Carr announced an expansion of that unit, adding a new regional team in Macon.
The human trafficking unit works with local and state law enforcement officers, as well as faith leaders and for profit and nonprofit organizations.
Since the unit’s foundation in 2019, it has secured convictions on 70 suspects and rescued and helped more than 200 children.
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