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Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

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Editorial: Children enslaved by sex trafficking deserve help

Washington, and particularly its attorneys general, has worked hard to suppress the sex trade. A new report says the state’s efforts are incomplete.

The Legislature created the Washington Statewide Coordinating Committee on the Commercial Sexual Exploitation of Children in 2013 to determine how well the state does shielding children as young as 12 from abuse, or providing the services they need if they fall into or are coerced into the sex trade.

Identifying victims has become more complicated as enforcement efforts on the street have pushed traffickers onto the Internet. Insidious websites like Backpage.com mask their true purpose by promoting so-called “escort services.” Efforts by Washington to suppress them have run afoul of First Amendment protections.

Children, many smuggled into the country for sexual purposes, are less able than adults to free themselves because they do not have the life or language skills to break away. Some social agencies are not properly trained to provide services to those who do try to run, or whom law enforcement agencies intercept.

The committee estimates several hundred children are sexually exploited in Washington, but the lack of harder numbers for victims is one of the problems members would like addressed.

In Spokane, the crisis hotline manned at Lutheran Community Services may take several calls during the peak summer and fall months, none at other times. But as coordinator Mabel Elson notes, few young victims self-identify because the communities and people they encounter outside the trade are not familiar.

Elson heads the Inland Northwest Task Force, one of five in Washington implementing protocols that guide schools, law enforcement and other social agencies working with victims, who need support when the only living they have known was sex and their pimp. Training in a skill that will enable victims to break that dependence is one of the two most urgent local needs. The other is housing.

Lutheran Services already fulfills two of the task force’s other recommendations: It is the single point of contact for victims and other agencies working with them. Recently, the agency emblazoned Spokane Transit Authority buses with appeals in three languages – English, Spanish and Russian – to raise awareness of the issue.

On Jan. 11, there will be a candlelight vigil for remembering the victims and survivors of human trafficking, which includes those exploited for their labor as domestics, etc.

The recommendations released this week are preliminary. A final report is due next year. By then, the Legislature should have moved beyond the task of funding K-12 education and will be able to turn its attention to some of the social problems that have been set aside.

Helping children enslaved for sex should be a priority when they do.

To respond to this editorial online, go to www.spokesman.com and click on Opinion under the Topics menu.