Fund awareness and education to prevent human trafficking | News

Nevada Senator Catherine Cortez Masto made an appearance at Reno-Tahoe International Airport to speak about the FAA reauthorization, which focuses on funding for prevention, education and awareness of human trafficking. She says we must continue at all levels to combat human trafficking in our community.

Sen. Cortez Masto says the first step is to raise awareness and educate about the human trafficking piece of the puzzle, which she says has not been funded at the federal level until now.

She says the majority of trafficking we see comes from sexual exploitation, and mentions that we need to do a better job of holding perpetrators accountable and ensuring there are services for victims. We must also do everything we can as a community to share information and collect data on the issue.

“The first step is to ensure that any victim of human trafficking has a safe place to go, and you make that environment safe, and then you put out information, like hotlines. Or what to look for if you feel that you are a victim of human trafficking or need help, and who to seek,” said Senator Cortez Masto.

She says the goal is that when a victim is ready to come forward, resources will be made available to them.

“The intention here is to ensure that this information is everywhere. They can see the hotline numbers, they know where to go, there is a safe place, that there is education in the community, that when they enter these public spaces, they see for themselves that it is a safe place and that they know where to go,” adds the senator.

Chief Ricardo Duarte of Reno-Tahoe International Airport says everyone at the airport is trained to know what to look for and there is signage everywhere.

“Our team is committed to being a leader in identifying and preventing human trafficking, and we look forward to sharing our best practices with other airports across the country,” Duarte said.

If you are a victim of human trafficking, you can report it to anyone at the airport and they will help you.

For airport assistance and 24-hour victim assistance, you can call (775) 328-6600. The National Human Trafficking Hotline is 1-888-373-7888 or you can click on link here.