Mayors all over Alabama are stepping up to fight human trafficking. Julia Meyers , Junior League Birmingham JLB chairwoman of the Anti-human Trafficking Committee, has been working tirelessly with the state legislative Human Trafficking Task Force in order to get regional government officials to proclaim January human trafficking awareness month.
The city of Cullman, Ala. I greatly respect the work that the Task Force has done and continues to do to help prevent this terrible crime in Cullman and Cullman County. Newly elected Birmingham Mayor Randall Woodfin also joined Meyers in declaring January as human trafficking awareness month, as evidenced in this tweet by the Junior League of Birmingham:.
Thank you for supporting JLB in this effort! Cam Ward introduced SB on Tuesday to increase the criminal punishment for those found guilty of obstruction or enforcement of current human trafficking laws. Kay Ivey is also expected to sign a proclamation later this month in observance of National Human Trafficking Awareness Month. The event features guest speaker Ed Smart whose daughter was abducted in and miraculously returned to her family after nine grueling months. Smart and his daughter Elizabeth are now active voices in the fight against sexual exploitation.
Under the Safe Harbor law, which passed in Alabama in , minors who are arrested for prostitution are not sent to juvenile detention centers or convicted of prostitution. But therein lies the problem; the state of Alabama has no where else to put them. Minors are currently sent back into the situations that sent them there in the first place, or turned over to DHR.
By providing training, specialized staff, and intake facilities for minors who are victims of human trafficking; Alabama would finally have somewhere to send victims in desperate need of care.
