Learn how to fight human trafficking

How gratifying to learn that O'Hare Airport - along with 13 other US airports - is taking seriously the scourge of human trafficking ("Airports boosting awareness of human trafficking," Daily Herald, Feb. 5, 2016).

By providing training films for their workers to help identify signs of trafficking, and posting displays and messages with direct help for those caught in the trade, airports are joining myriad spirited people and organizations saying, "No more victims!"

Polaris, a Washington, D.C., anti-trafficking organization, is working with the hotel industry to provide similar training for employees, the Herald story notes, as is Truckers Against Trafficking, who encourage their drivers to cooperate with police to quell the trafficking tide.

Yes, a majority of victims are young women, but boys also are a target for similar abuses. Increasingly, media stories describe "new" trafficking tactics, like the latest discovery, thanks to the Associated Press, of young boys and men indentured into hard labor, as they work long hours aboard cramped Asian ships to clean shrimp that eventually land on supper tables in the U.S.

Arlington Heights will tackle the trafficking trade on April 5, when, from 7-9 p.m., its village hall will be the site of a panel discussion about trafficking in the Northwest suburbs.

Headlining the panel will be Cara Smith, chief of policy from Sheriff Tom Dart's Cook County office; Arlington Heights Village Manager Randy Recklaus; and a representative of Arlington Heights' police department, as well as other community voices.

Join them to learn more and to add your voice to the chorus, "No more victims!"

Gary Stelling

Arlington Heights