TAMPA, Fla. (WFLA) — Tampa has been a hot spot for human trafficking for years. Wednesday, Tampa General Hospital officials and community advocates held a symposium, sharing tools to identify, respond to, and prevent human trafficking.
“It’s not if you see trafficking, right, it’s when you see trafficking, because we’re third in the nation following behind California and Texas being one and two. We’ve been about third for the last seven years that I know. Statistically, that data is there, and how we get that data is the calls reported to the human trafficking hotline,” said Kim Figueroa, a victim advocate and survivor.
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Figueroa’s story is gut wrenching.
“I grew up in a very abusive home, experienced all forms of abuse. I went into foster care. In foster care, I was recruited through peer-to-peer recruitment, and I was trafficked as early as 11 years old,” she said…