A recently published article (“Trafficking victims turn to hotline with pleas for help,” Oct. 1) spoke to the horrors of human trafficking and the important efforts of the National Human Trafficking Hotline in reaching survivors. The highest volume of calls coming through the hotline originate from big cities, but trafficking can and does happen everywhere, to women and men, cisgender and transgender people, and children right here in Maine.
Whether through labor or sex trafficking, human trafficking victims are forced, by sexual, physical and psychological coercion or violence, to do work – including domestic services, massage parlors, street prostitution and agricultural and restaurant work. These are all examples we have seen in Maine, many hidden in plain sight – working alongside others who aren’t being trafficked.
