Many may be shocked to learn that human trafficking is not just an international problem - that the crime is way out of control in the United States.
According to the New Mexico Attorney General’s website, next to drugs, human trafficking is the world’s second largest criminal industry, and it doesn’t just affect poor immigrants. Often victims of this form of human slavery are trafficked across their own countries.
The Polaris Project says one of the best ways to combat this crime is to post America’s national Hotline numbers in bus stations. Anyone can call this NHTRC Hotline for help or to report a suspected case of human trafficking, and it would be great if Greyhound, for one, could help Polaris get the word out.
National Human Trafficking Resource Center: Call: 1.888.3737.888 or Text: Be Free (233733).
Ask Greyhound to help end human trafficking by posting NHTRC Hotline numbers in all its stations. Better yet, why not post it on all its buses as well?
We, the undersigned, urge Greyhound and others in the public transportation industry to help combat human trafficking by publicizing NHTRC’s Hotline numbers.
The Polaris Project provides printable notices in several languages on its website, and the following can be posted on any bus or air terminal and in hotels and other places related to travel:
Call 1-888-373-7888 or text BeFree (233733). The National Human Trafficking Resource Center (NHTRC) is a national, toll-free hotline, available to answer calls and texts from anywhere in the country, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, every day of the year.
Though Polaris suggests that consumers post these notices in bus stations, it would certainly help if Greyhound could join the effort and do even more by also posting notices on its buses and urging hotels promoted in its packages to do the same.
Polaris notes the shocking news that there are more victims of slavery today than there were at the height of the trans-Atlantic slave trade. Greyhound played a huge, though somewhat reluctant, role in the Civil Rights Movement’s first Freedom Ride, and it now has the opportunity to play an important part in the movement against modern-day slavery.
We ask Greyhound to help our country eradicate all forms of slavery forever and help the victims of this terrible crime in any way it can.
Thanks for your time.
