Florida lawmakers want hotel workers trained to help combat sex trafficking

ORLANDO, Fla. — The fight against human trafficking could get a boost at the state level.

A South Florida lawmaker wants to make it mandatory for hotel workers statewide to be trained in recognizing signs of human trafficking and reporting them.

For years, WFTV reporters have talked with survivors, and covered sex-trafficking arrests, but it has been a very difficult crime to fight.

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WFTV’s Karen Parks talked with one survivor, who said she was forced into sex at a hotel in Florida, about the new bill.

Florida is ranked third in the country for human trafficking, behind California and Texas.

According to the Victims Services Center of Central Florida, hotels are hotspots for human trafficking.

“I was trafficked for 15 years,” said human trafficking survivor Marianne Thomas. “My parents didn't want me at home, they kicked me out of the house and had me emancipated.”

Thomas said she it was a hard life for a 15-year-old after she hit the streets.

“I was living in the streets, sleeping underneath bridges at night,” Thomas said.

Thomas said she was popular prey for pimps and forced in and out of Florida hotels, sometimes on back-to-back weekends, but no one said a word.

“The front desk staff doesn't necessarily know who is coming out of those hotels,” Thomas said. “So there is an anonymity there.”

In 2014, WFTV News was present when the Metropolitan Bureau of Investigation talked to a small group of hotel employees on how to recognize human trafficking.

It’s a presentation the department does at least 20 times a year, but only when someone requests it.

During the 2019 legislative session, there will be a bill on the table to require hotel employees to be trained on how to recognize and report human trafficking.

“If some people had that training then I would have looked out of place,” Thomas said. “If somebody had been paying attention, I always looked young for my age in the company of older gentlemen.”

The proposal would also mandate a first-of-its-kind registry for pimps and Johns and an organization that would collect money and provide resources to help trafficking survivors.

“It would raise awareness so that people are paying attention now,” Thomas said.

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