Nearly 100 Southern Illinois residents took up the cause to bring awareness to the problem of global sex trafficking during a walk at 10 a.m. in Du Quoin on Saturday.
There have been no cases here and only a handful in places like St. Louis or Chicago and organizer Melissa Jackson knows that, but worldwide it is becoming a heart wrenching issue.
The Walk for Freedom came at 10 a.m. as walkers with taped mouths trekked through Du Quoin following a concert that began at 8 a.m. and came with first person testimonials from members who have visited the world’s sex slave trafficking cities.
The Saturday walk was part of a national movement organized by the A21 Campaign, which had supporters organizing similar walks across the country.
She was supported in this effort by members of her church, Vision Church, an almost year-old church in Du Quoin, the Carbondale Women’s Center and by members of the Propel Women of Southern Illinois, a chapter of a national group she recently started in January in Du Quoin.
The U.S. Department of Homeland Security defines human trafficking as "a modern-day form of slavery involving the illegal trade of people for exploitation or commercial gain." This practice generates billions of dollars in profit and is second only to drug-trafficking as the most profitable form of transnational crime.
Those trafficking in humans use force, fraud or coercion to lure and force their victims into labor or commercial sexual exploitation, according to the U.S. Department of Homeland Security website. Those being victimized rarely come forward because of language barriers, fear of the traffickers or fear of law enforcement.
Human trafficking is a civil rights violation and is a crime that is investigated by the Federal Bureau of Investigation.
So far this year, there have been 35 cases of human trafficking reported in Illinois, according to the National Human Trafficking Resource Center. The vast
