Sex trafficking is a worldwide crime against women and children. Predators often form sophisticated networks to transport unsuspecting victims across international borders and then trap them in a life of sexual servitude.
Stopping these sex traffickers requires a coalition of organizations from different countries working together. That’s where OUR Rescue comes in.
OUR Rescue’s Partners: A trafficker’s nightmare. A survivor’s hope
OUR Rescue has an ever-growing list of international and domestic partners, including law enforcement agencies and NGOs who provide a safe haven for survivors. To help our partners prepare for operations to counter trafficking, we provide training, intelligence, tactical strategy, and technology. And we ready our survivor care case workers and partner NGOs to prepare a safe place for the people we help free.
When a sex trafficking crime is suspected, we can quickly pull together a multi-organizational team. Additionally, OUR Rescue will often provide on-the-ground assistance during an operation.
The results: A Canary Islands multinational operation leads to 18 arrests and 18 rescues
I recently participated with OUR Rescue’s operations team and partners in action. For “OPERATION PRIOR,” a multi-organizational effort including Spanish Policia Nacional (SNP), the Policía Nacional de Colombia, INTERPOL, the Spanish Guardia Civil, and a Spain-based NGO.
At the request of the SNP and INTERPOL, OUR Rescue provided essential logistical support for Operation PRIOR, helping free 18 women and capture 18 traffickers.
In this case, women from impoverished areas of South America were lured to Spain with promises of a better life and the ability to support their families. Instead, when the women got to Spain, they had their passports confiscated, went straight to nightclubs from the airport, and were coerced into sexual exploitation. They were forced to work around the clock and were punished if they did not follow orders. After our law enforcement partners made the arrest, I went down in the strip club where they were held hostage to see the conditions these women were forced to live in: locked rooms, mattresses on the floor, bricked up windows. No light. No hope.
Thanks to our law enforcement partners, these predators are now locked up and the survivors are safe. Most of them are already back home safe, with their families in Colombia – the country they were lured from.
Thanks to the technology, tools, and collaborative support from OUR Rescue, we’re able to take not just one step forward, but another and another to reach more survivors,
said David Diego Monserrat, SNP Director of the Central Sector for Trafficking in Human Beings.
You are part of our partner community, too
OUR Rescue and our partners around the world depend on people like you. Without your donations, the women in the Canary Islands would still be stuck in an unimaginable situation. Your donations directly support rescues, law enforcement, survivors, and prevention and education. Please consider joining our mission. #JoinTheFight. Save more women.
— Tammy Lee, OUR Rescue CEO