Nebraska Attorney General's Office, Courtesy
NEBRASKA — National Human Trafficking Awareness Day was Jan. 10, 2024, and January has been recognized as Human Trafficking Awareness Month in Nebraska over the past several years.
Attorney General Mike Hilgers was joined on Friday by Lt. Governor Joe Kelly and Colonel John Bolduc to announce January as Human Trafficking Awareness Month.
Attorney General Mike Hilgers, Governor Jim Pillen, and Colonel John Bolduc gathered in the Nebraska State Capitol to recognize January as Human Trafficking Awareness Month.
Attorney General Hilgers released the 2024 Nebraska Human Trafficking Task Force (NHTTF) Report, announced the 2025 Human Trafficking Task Force Summit, and presented the 2025 human trafficking poster to be distributed across Nebraska.
The report details efforts made in 2024 to combat human trafficking in Nebraska. Most notably, Attorney General Hilgers hosted the inaugural Human Trafficking Task Force Summit in Kearney in September with over 200 attendees. Due to the success of the event, the second annual Summit is scheduled for September 16, 2025, in Lincoln at the UNL Innovation Campus. Registration for this year’s Summit will open on June 16, 2025.
Human trafficking is insidious because it masquerades its victims in plain sight. The action many advocacy groups for human trafficking victims encourage the public to take is to be vigilant, observe behaviors and trust one’s instincts.
Human trafficking is defined by the Coalition on Human Trafficking, CHT, as, obtaining a person for labor, services or sex acts by force, fraud or coercion.
Labor trafficking is when someone is forced to perform labor or services using force, fraud or coercion. This includes involuntary servitude or debt bondage. Labor trafficking makes up 20 percent of human trafficking cases, according to the CHT.
Sex trafficking is forcing a person, again through fraud, coercion, or violence, to engage in a commercial sex act.
These are performed in exchange for money, drugs, or other things. Not all commercial sex acts are instances of trafficking, according to the CHT website.
According to the CHT, trafficking is the second largest criminal industry in the world, netting $150 billion annually. These numbers are approaching the money generated by the drug or firearm trade.
In the United States, around 100,000 children are at risk of being forced into some form of sex trafficking every year. These children are around the ages of 14-16 who are missing from care or have endured earlier abuse.
Often, they have fled abusive situations, only to fall in with traffickers and be recruited into the sex trade. Recruitment can happen at parks, homeless shelters, malls, bus stations, and extensively on social media. They are usually co-opted within 48 hours of hitting the streets, the CHT website says.
Nebraska has not been spared from this reality, unfortunately the highway systems used by innocent people every day, are also the main artery of human trafficking in the state.
According to data collected by the Woman’s Fund of Omaha, commercial sex trafficking reaches nearly every town and city along Interstate 80.
According to information from the Woman’s Fund of Omaha per 100,000 inhabitants, 200 victims were sold for sex in Grand Island, 182 in Omaha, 146 in Scottsbluff, 143 in Gretna, 135 in North Platte, 97 in Lincoln and 75 in York.
The average number of individuals sold for sex per month numbers 675 in Omaha, 200 in Lincoln, 65 in Grand Island, 15 in North Platte and 10 in Scottsbluff, according to the Woman’s Fund.
Human trafficking by its very nature is transient. Anti-trafficking efforts have focused on truck stops, gas stations and hotels along major highway routes.
According to the Women’s Fund, “The smaller the local population is, the higher the likelihood individuals sold for sex will travel in and out of the given market.”
For example, it is estimated that 83 percent of human trafficking victims in North Platte are transient, while 17 percent is static. In a town like Lexington, the transient number is statistically going to be higher.
Often the victims will not be recognizable as they are not native to the area, this does not mean that trafficking cannot affect the people one sees every day and knows well.
When it comes to the race of victims, there is a racial imbalance. African Americans make up 50 percent of victims, while only making up five percent of the total Nebraska population.
The Woman’s Fund data shows that refuge and asylum-seeking individuals are less likely to be advertised online, word of mouth is more prevalent in this community.
The CHT encourages people to shed the preconception that human trafficking victims are always kidnapped and held in captivity.
“They are held captive in plain view of ordinary people, disguised as relatives of friends of their victimizers,” said the CHT.
There are signs individuals can look for if they think someone may be a human trafficking victim.
According to the CHT, these victims may not be in possession of their own identification or travel documents, not free to move independently or socialize, be of school age but not in school, be malnourished, have few personal possessions, seem fearful or anxious in everyday situations, have odd tattoos, like bar codes, which show ownership, have a much older romantic partner, claim to “just be visiting” or “passing through,” or cannot speak on their own behalf.
Signs a person may be a trafficker; they carry multiple cell phones, carry several hotel cards, suddenly acquire several expensive items, speak for the “group” or only pay cash for rooms.
If you suspect someone is a trafficker, do not approach the victim or trafficker; this could cause death or injury to the victim or to the individual approaching them.
The Central Nebraska Human Trafficking and Immigration Outreach (CNHTIO) advises people to gather as much information as you can safely. Descriptions like height, weight, hair color, tattoos, scars, trafficker descriptions, car description and license plate number.
Different organizations caution about only thinking human trafficking affects women and girls. Men over 30-years-old can be made victims of trafficking, young boys are also targeted.
Traffickers are not always men, in fact, in recent years the number of women traffickers has been growing.
“We have to fight the misconception that this is only a male dominated crime,” according to CHNTIO.
While the streets are one place traffickers find their victims, social media has been growing as a tool for traffickers, according to CHNTIO.
CHNTIO says victims are found on dating apps like Tinder, online games such as Fortnite, and Facebook messenger.
She said traffickers who use social media often look for victims who are vulnerable or find themselves resenting their home life or their parents.
Victims are likely to be young adults who have been in and out of the legal system.
Traffickers will latch on to victims like this by plying them with gifts like food, clothes, or jewelry. The switch comes when traffickers suddenly demand payment for these items; younger people will likely not have that amount of money, so the trafficker proposes selling them for sex or labor to pay off the “debt.”
Traffickers do their best to break down the personality of their victim. Traffickers brainwash their victims, making them think they are worthless while making them feel like their abuser is the only one in the world who cares about them, according to CHNTIO.
The key for traffickers is control. Control of their victims’ bodies, control of their possessions, who they speak to, where they go, all of this further enforces in the victim’s mind they must be dependent on their abuser.
Traffickers will attempt to hide in plain sight with their victims, according to CHNTIO, people should pay attention when one is shopping at Wal-Mart, fueling for gas, or simply walking around their town. People should pay attention to their gut reaction to situations, if something seems off, it most likely is.
What ties the hands of advocates for victims, is they cannot order or demand a victim to get out of their situation, leave their abuser behind.
“We just become another abuser in a situation like that,” according to CHNTIO, “You have to be careful how you approach it.”
There are ways to help victims, advocacy groups encourage people to err on the side of the potential survivor. Call 1-888-373-7888 for the National Trafficking Hotline or if someone seems in immediate danger call 911 or the non-emergency police phone number to report suspicious activity.
