Legislation aims to reduce human trafficking in Delaware

Delaware officials believe new state laws can help reduce human trafficking here, including penalties for customers who patronize business that use victims of the practice.

"People think of Delaware and they don't think of human trafficking, yet it does go on in Delaware and all fifty states and it goes on with Americans, it goes on with people from other countries," said Senate President Patricia Blevins, D-Elsmere, who is sponsoring legislation to address human trafficking.

The Polaris Project, a nonprofit that tracks trafficking tips, received 122 calls to its hotline and 11 calls that referenced potential trafficking situations in Delaware.

The legislation increases penalties for traffickers, establishes new protective measures for victims, forms a council to monitor human trafficking in the state, and provides an opportunity for victims to expunge crimes, like prostitution, associated with trafficking. The legislation also imposes stricter penalties on those who patronize victims of sexual servitude at businesses.

Additional criminal penalties are created for human traffickers who lift victims from shelters, foster homes, and other facilities, as well as ensuring that restitution is ordered even if the victim cannot accept payment.

The legislation is based in part on the Uniform Act on the Prevention of and Remedies for Human Trafficking, which has been the basis for anti-human trafficking legislation in other states this year, including Alabama, Arizona, Kentucky, Louisiana, Nebraska, New Hampshire, South Carolina and Virginia. The bill is sponsored by Blevins, and Rep. Helene Keeley, D-Wilmington South, and is backed by Attorney General Beau Biden's office and the Uniform Law Commission.

Deputy Attorney General Abigail Layton, who commands the state's Child Predator Unit, said the issue of human trafficking in Delaware is real, but there has not been a coordinated effort to identify victims until now. Authorities have seen a rise in ads on internet sites like Backpage, a kind of Craigslist without boundaries, that are indicative of human trafficking, she added.

"It is happening here within our communities, with our own children," Layton said.

Delaware is an attractive place for traffickers because of its position along the I-95 corridor, allowing traffickers to move victims, she said

Each county within the state faces its own unique battle with human trafficking, with Sussex being a little more susceptible to labor trafficking. But all three counties are exposed to trafficking within the sex trade, she added.

Layton said the state already is covered by federal law on trafficking, but the legislation adds more teeth to the state's criminal laws

"At the state level, we need a mechanism to prosecute these types of cases. Certainly we work with federal agencies to do so, but not every case will be handled by the federal government," she said.

Contact Jon Offredo at (302) 678-4271 or at joffredo@delawareonline.com or on Twitter @jonoffredo.