Press "Enter" to skip to content

Anti-human trafficking bill passes House committees

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo — An anti-human trafficking bill soars through two committees after an emotion-packed hearing.

A drove of supporters turned out to give testimony on Monday to the House Committee on Crime Prevention and Public Safety.

“I was raped, I was beaten,” Casey Alvarez, co-founder of Go61, said. “There was not one person who identified me as a victim. There was not one opportunity I could see that was an offer of help.”

House Bill 1246 — sponsored by Rep. Patricia Pike, R-Adrian — would require various establishments to display a poster that provides information regarding human trafficking, including what it is and what resources victims have for getting help, in a conspicuous place near the front of the establishment, starting March 1, 2019.

Missouri ranks in the top 20 of states in human trafficking, or “modern day slavery” as it was referred to several times throughout the hearing.

The Central Missouri Stop Human Trafficking Coalition shared the story of a man who found help through the hotline number. The unnamed man from out-of-state was bussed in with seven other guys, worked for 23 days unpaid and was left in Missouri when the “employer” bused the others back. The man called the hotline and they helped him get back home. The hotline will be listed on the poster.

“Since 2007, the National Human Trafficking Hotline has received nearly 2,000 reports of human trafficking cases right here in Missouri,” a representative from the state Attorney General’s office said, “and it has identified as many as 1,000 possible victims in our state.”

The bill passed the Crime Prevention and Public Safety committee in a unanimous, 9-0 vote and the Rules-Legislative Oversight committee in a unanimous, 12-0 vote. The bill now moves on to the floor of the House.