The problem of human trafficking – the sale of human beings for labor and sex work -- isn’t new. For years, trafficking has taken place out of the public eye, in classified pages and hotel rooms. But starting this year, Michigan is taking a new approach to catching traffickers. Instead of only focusing on training police about trafficking, a new partnership will now train hotel and motel staff across Michigan – anyone from housekeepers to management – on how to recognize the crime and act themselves.
For many in the tourism industry, human trafficking isn't an issue you think about on a daily basis. But for Anne Vonk, who works in sales at a Hilton Garden Inn in Benton Harbor, one day in the summer of 2015 changed how she looked at her business.
Vonk says she thinks her staff is on top of nearly everything happening inside the hotel. But on this particular day, she found herself dealing with a situation she knew nothing about. Her housekeeping supervisor alerted her to a certain man in the hotel. All of his strange behaviors made her realize that this man could be a human trafficker.
"And it’s kind of unreal!" says Vonk. "Because here we are, walking around all normal. And to know on the other side of a closed door, there are all kinds of things going on -- that's very distressing."
"Because here we are, walking around all normal. And to know on the other side of a closed door, there are all kinds of things going on -- that's very distressing."
Vonk says the hotel followed all of the recommended steps for dealing with trafficking, including letting the police know about the incident and not confronting the trafficker. But at the end of the experience, she looked back and couldn’t believe that this was happening in her own hotel.
"We do things to help people. We walk in the Breast Cancer walk, we walk in the Alzheimer's walk. We plant a tree for Earth Day. We’re positive people!" says Vonk. "And to have that happening under your own roof, where you feel a kind of ownership of it, it’s extremely distressing."
According to the National Human Trafficking Resource Center, 114 cases of trafficking were reported in Michigan in the first nine months of 2015 alone. Almost ten percent of those cases occurred in hotels and motels. It’s those high numbers that recently brought together two groups – the Southwest Michigan Human Trafficking Task Force and the Michigan Lodging and Tourism Association.
The groups are partnering with a national organization called the SAFE Action Project to stop human trafficking in Michigan by putting the focus on the tourism industry. MLTA President Steve Yencich says he sees the partnership as a moral obligation from the industry.
"And our adoption is our industry’s attempt to really do what we can, from our perspective, to reduce these incidents of human trafficking," says Yencich.
The first steps of partnership began in January, with the launch of a pilot program in Berrien County. The pilot isn't large -- just a few hotel owners from the Benton Harbor geting trained inside a local Hilton hotel. Through a webinar from SAFE Action Project coordinator Savannah Sanders, the hotel owners quickly get all sorts of information on trafficking.
As Sanders talks through the in's and out's of the crime, many owners are shocked to learn about how widespread human trafficking is across the country, and just how easy it is to find trafficking online. But Sanders explains that, through reporting and investigating the issue, it's manageable.
"What our hope is, is that a report will help the next report, which will help the next report," Sanders tells the crowd of owners. "And we have seen it be pretty effective in recovering several victims that have been at hotels with traffickers, and have left that hotel and gone to another hotel. So it's really important that you're not afraid to make any reports, because even if it's not going to end in an investigation, it's going to help."
The program works by the SAFE Action Project first training hotel managers and supervisors. Then those owners train housekeepers, concierges, kitchen staff through fact sheet and videos. Plus, Sanders says, this training isn’t lengthy. There are just a few videos, each tailored to a different job.
Sanders says because the program isn’t trying to turn these staff members into experts, it can train everyone quickly. And that’s needed in a field like the lodging industry, where housekeepers and bellboys don’t have the time to sit down for two hours and take notes.
But there are still are some worries. Even with so many hotels getting trained, some owners say that police still need to buy into the program, too. Anne Vonk, from the Hilton, says she saw it firsthand. She wanted the police to investigate the potential trafficker at her hotel. However, Vonk says when she called the police, they said their hands were tied. They couldn’t get a search warrant to go inside.
"So they checked out, went on their merry way," Vonk says. "We just felt very helpless."
WMUK contacted the Benton Township Police Department for more details, but they said without an official charge of human trafficking, they couldn’t locate the exact case.
Sanders, with the SAFE Action Project, says getting everyone on board – law enforcement, businesses, state officials and health care workers – is still a big goal that will likely take decades to reach. But Sanders says she’s thrilled that the issue has become such a priority in the industry.
She says the SAFE Action Project only started in 2014, but already, nine states are using it. And it will only get larger in April, when Michigan's adoption of the program expands statewide.
Cathy Knauf, the founder of the Southwest Michigan Human Trafficking Task Force, says she doesn’t expect the new program to suddenly uncover every incident of human trafficking in Michigan. But she hopes that by working together with businesses, they can cast a wide net to keep trafficking at bay.
