December 4, 2025 • 29 mins
On today’s episode, we’re joined by Philadelphia Councilmember Nina Ahmad, who is leading a critical new initiative to combat human trafficking across the city. Her proposed legislation—developed in partnership with the Red Card Philly campaigns call for a multilingual, citywide public-education effort featuring posters, PSAs, social media messaging, and outreach in transportation hubs and other high-traffic areas. With a proposed $500,000 investment, the goal is to equip residents, workers, and visitors with the tools to recognize the signs of human trafficking, report concerns safely and support the protection of vulnerable individuals. Councilmember Ahmad discusses why this initiative is urgently needed, how language accessibility strengthens the campaign’s reach, and the key community and advocacy partners helping to drive this work. Listeners will also learn practical ways to stay informed, report suspected trafficking and engage in anti-trafficking efforts in their own neighborhoods.
🌐 Official City Council Profile:
https://phlcouncil.com/ninaahmad
📸 Instagram (Official Council Account):
@cmninaahmad
📲 General Contact (Office):
📞 215-686-3450
Human Trafficking Hotlines
📞 National Human Trafficking Hotline: 888-373-7888
📞 Salvation Army Philadelphia Anti-Trafficking Hotline: 267-838-5866
🌐 Official City Council Profile:
https://phlcouncil.com/ninaahmad
📸 Instagram (Official Council Account):
@cmninaahmad
📲 General Contact (Office):
📞 215-686-3450
Human Trafficking Hotlines
📞 National Human Trafficking Hotline: 888-373-7888
📞 Salvation Army Philadelphia Anti-Trafficking Hotline: 267-838-5866
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Good morning, Welcome to What's going on, a show about
making a difference in our lives and our communities. I'm
Lorraine Balladmorrow, hoping you had a wonderful Thanksgiving holiday. Before
we dive in, I want to highlight a couple of
meaningful events I attended last week. Big shout out to
City Year, where I served on a panel during their
(00:20):
annual Women's Leadership luncheon. My son participated in City Year's
Young Heroes program in middle school, and I've seen firsthand
the impact they make. City Year's mission is to advance
educational outcomes for all students and develop the next generation
of leaders through national service. They provided crucial support and
mentorship to students in under resourced neighborhoods, and their work
(00:43):
truly moves the needle. Under President Trump, City Year lost
its federal funding, which means community support and events like
this matter more than ever. If you're able to visit
CityYear dot org and learn how you can help. Also
a special shout out to Loreena Marshall Blake, president of
the Independence Blue Cross Foundation and co chair of this
(01:03):
year's luncheon. It was also her birthday, and for all
of you who know her and all the things that
she's done for our community. This would be a wonderful
birthday present. On Monday, I amc the University of Pennsylvania's
Center for AIDS Research Community Advisory Board Red Ribbon Awards,
the organization also known as Penn's CEAFARCAB, honoring community activists, providers,
(01:28):
and researchers dedicated to the HIV AIDS response. Monday was
also World Aid's Day, and for the first time since
nineteen eighty eight, the Trump administration declined to acknowledge it,
breaking a decades long tradition. In my view, World Age
Day remains essential because it keeps HIV visible, combat stigma,
(01:50):
honors those we've lost, and sustains momentum towards better prevention, treatment,
and health equity. I was truly honored to join Pennsafest
CAB and recognizing the extraordinary individuals working towards a future
of zero infections, zero deaths, and zero stigma. And now
to this morning's show. Human trafficking remains one of the
(02:14):
most hidden and urgent crises facing our communities. Globally, it's
described as modern day slavery. Locally, it's a devastating reality
for far too many in Philadelphia and across Pennsylvania. According
to the National Human Trafficking Hotline, more than fifty four
hundred victims have been identified across the state, with thousands
(02:35):
of tips and reports confirming trafficking activity. And in a
study of Philadelphia's homeless youth, researchers found that nearly one
in five had experienced some form of trafficking, including sex
trafficking and forced labor. That's why the efforts and message
of today's guest is so we're speaking with Philadelphia City
Council Member Nina Ahmad, who's leading a powerful new effort
(02:58):
to combat human trafficking in our city. Her proposed legislation,
part of the Red Card Philly campaign, aims to launch
a multilingual citywide public education initiative using posters, PSAs, social media,
and outreach in transportation hubs in high traffic areas with
a proposed five hundred thousand dollars investment. The goal is clear,
(03:18):
equip residents and visitors for the tools to identify and
report human trafficking, protect vulnerable individuals, and strengthen community wide
awareness and action. So thank you so much for joining
us here today and for this initiative. Tell us. What
inspired you to introduce this bill and create the red
Card Philly campaign.
Speaker 2 (03:39):
First of all, thank you Loraine for having me, for
giving me this platform to share with your listening audience
and hopefully a lot of Philadelphia what we are doing.
They elected me and I am their public servant, and
so this issue is not because I'm a city council member.
This is something I've cared about long before I was
in any kind of you know, political position, appointed position.
(04:04):
You know my history as a child, having lived through
a war. In that war, I saw how women and
girls and marginalized people were treated. Over two hundred and
fifty thousand women and girls were brutalized as a tool
of war. So right then I understood that, you know,
we have to give a voice to the voiceless and
(04:24):
work to rectify some of these inequities that are all
over our world. And from that, when I was Deputy
mayor in twenty twenty six twenty sixteen with the first
term of Jim Kenny, I met Judge Lourie Dumas and
doctor Ellen Joe Waller, the first lady of a non
(04:46):
Baptist Tabernacle church who has a whole ministry around human
trafficking from whom I learned and saw what was happening
around again marginalized communities. So it piacked my interest since
then to see how are we combating this and the
fact that this is a global illicit trade which is
hugely profitable and so it will take all of us
(05:09):
to combat it. And the second thing is here in
Philadelphia there's a lack of awareness. I think if we
increase our awareness, we could reduce how people got trafficked.
So those are all the kind of threads that brought
me here, and I want to use my role as
city council and every opportunity I get.
Speaker 1 (05:27):
For those who are unfamiliar, can you explain what human
trafficking looks like in Philadelphia and why this public education
approach is so essential.
Speaker 2 (05:37):
So human trafficking can be labor trafficking and sex trafficking.
Both of those are course situations. So in terms of
sex trafficking, it is getting people to give illicit services
because prostitution is illegal. However, this is about forcing people
against their will and keeping them requested from society and
(06:02):
really demanding them to do certain kinds of provide certain
kinds of services. It also involves a lot of times
using drugs to manipulate people, and so people are at
the mercy of who is in control of this trade,
and they target vulnerable people. They look for runaways, they
look for people who might be having other issues, and
(06:24):
then those people are targeted to put into this coerced
sex trade. The labor trafficking is where people are either
brought in or used for labor in many different situations,
including farm work, including factory work, where you get these
folks that you say you're going to give them a job,
(06:46):
You bring them in and you take all their identity away,
meaning their passport or anything else, and they have to
pay off the trafficker for being able to get that job,
and that job is never paid off, so you're forever
enslaved in that situation. So these are the two major
kinds of trafficking we have. So the issue with trafficking
(07:09):
in Philadelphia, particularly the sex trafficking, is what we're mostly
focusing on in this twenty twenty six. Our numbers are
hard to come by. However, I do have numbers because
there's lack of awareness, right, so that sort of fits
into itself. But let me just give you some numbers.
I have from a report that's going to maybe has
(07:30):
been already publisher coming out from the Salvation Army, and
those numbers were that this past year without women organized
against rape, not their numbers, just purely survivors outside that
there was four hundred and ninety seven people trafficked. So
that's almost five hundred people off them. Three hundred were
(07:52):
sex trafficked, one hundred and seventy one were labor trafficked,
and thirty seven were sex and labor.
Speaker 1 (07:59):
And we know this is an under report right exactly.
It's the tip of the iceberg, isn't it. Yes, you know,
And there's another layer that we have to add to
all of the coercive methods that are being used to
enslave individuals, and that is the state of immigration right now,
because that's the additional threat that trafficker can lay on
(08:20):
someone who is not here as an undocumented individual. So
with the layer of fear that already exists out there
in our communities, I'm sure that that's another huge factor.
Speaker 2 (08:33):
Absolutely. Anyway to take away agency from someone then lets
you manipulate them, right. And I was just talking to
somebody about this issue of particularly about the sex trafficking
Why is it so lucrative? If you think about drug use, right,
you give someone a dose of a drug and they
(08:54):
use it up, it's gone. With the sex trafficking, you
can use the same person over and over and over
again to provide these services. Right, So you can see why.
And then you and you put the two together, drugs
and coursed sexual services. It just amplifies. And then put
(09:18):
onto it the layer of not having your papers and
being in the dark. You're not going to complain about anybody.
You're not going to go to anybody to say and
that makes everybody less safe, not just the person being
targeted who might be undocumented, but everybody around them, because
these traffickers then get emboldened and they're going to start
(09:39):
getting into other spaces that are for people who are
here with their legal status. So this does not stay
contained in one area. It spreads just like a virus.
Speaker 1 (09:50):
Now, the campaign includes a multi lingual outreach. Why is
language accessibility such a critical part of this strategy.
Speaker 2 (09:59):
You just mentioned that the immigrant community is at risk,
and we also have, you know, native born people here
who might speak a different language. Right, we have people
who speak Spanish, We have all kinds of people in Philadelphia.
We are a very multicultural city, and anything that makes
(10:19):
you vulnerable, and when you don't have language access and
you don't have language skills, that's another vulnerability that people
can exploit. So that's why having information go to everyone
so that everyone can understand and see what role they
can play to combat it is critical.
Speaker 1 (10:36):
You propose placing materials and transportation hubs and other high
traffic locations, how does this placement help reach individuals who
make witness or experience trafficking.
Speaker 2 (10:46):
So we are right now, actually the Public Office of
Public Safety is going to be executing on this amount
of money that I was able to secure, and they're
going to roll out how this coordination will work, and
they're in the process of figuring out what we're when,
what RFPs will look like, and all of that that's
(11:07):
not in my purview. My one was getting them the
resources and sharing my vision. So those details are forthcoming.
They'll come sooner than later. And in fact, I just
had a conversation today about saying, we need to move
this along to understand what are the levers we're pushing.
So it will include what you mentioned, but will also
(11:27):
include training, So there'll be places hubs where we can
do training. There's a bill in the House of Pennsylvania
House Build twelve eighty six that is actually going to
require all people involved with hotels and hotels and airbnbs
to train staff to spot human trafficking. And so we're
(11:53):
going to be whether that passes right now, it's in
the process it you know, hopefully it'll pass soon. But
we're going to actually take that and work with their
hospitality industry to start the training process because they're already
doing some of it, to amplify it, to see where
the gaps are, and to make sure what does someone
do once you spot someone, where do you report it?
(12:14):
How do you make sure the authorities are responding? And
then we want to collect data to say this happened,
so we can see where are the hotspots. We can
see what worked and what didn't work right, and then
we have to take care of survivors once you report
it and they have been rescued, what is happening to
our survivors. I'm introducing a bill on this Thursday that
(12:36):
is about making sure that the people who are survivors
of human trafficking, once they're employed, that status is not
held against them. They're not discriminated because of that status.
You know, we have lots of safeguards in our code
in Philadelphia, human traffic has never been mentioned ever. This
(12:56):
is the first time we're going to introduce that, saying
that it's a sub group of Philadelphians who are people
who have survived human trafficking and we want to make
sure they're not impeded in any way to do their
work as an employee in the city of Philadelphia. So
lots of things.
Speaker 1 (13:12):
Yeah, yeah, you mentioned about training the hospitality industry, and
I did an interview a number of years ago with
a lawyer who was involved with this issue, and he
was talking about the complicity of many major corporations, whether
they're hotel chains or whether their truck stops or there's
lots of different categories of businesses and corporations that either
(13:34):
intentionally or turn a blind eye to human trafficking.
Speaker 2 (13:39):
For the reason I mentioned, very lucrative. Right, So you
are seeing what is happening on our national landscape with
the Epstein files that is human trafficking. Yeah, absolutely, that's
what we're dealing with. It is endemic everywhere. So when
we do this kind of bringing in daylight into this situation.
(14:01):
That's when hotels and hotels and all who have been
quietly being concluding in this space are going to be
brought up into the sunshine to say, hey, without accusing
anybody to say, you have to be partners in this work.
We're going to see how your partners in this work.
We're going to see how you're doing the training, and
we are going to come and work with you to
(14:21):
make sure that you are actually implementing these campaigns that
we are working so hard to spread across the city
of Philadelphia. So that kind of disinfectant of sunshine is
what we want to use with this campaign as well,
and focus it on places we know, as you mentioned,
have been complicit.
Speaker 1 (14:40):
I wonder if you could talk a little bit about
our own ability to contribute and to help. I'm sure
there are a lot of people out there who would like
to be able to assist, but probably don't understand or
don't know what to look for or what resources are
available if they do encounter human trafficking.
Speaker 2 (14:58):
That's exactly what we want to put out. There should
be a number to call, and there will be by
the end of our interview. I'll give you a number
just for your audience right now, but we're going to
obviously work on that and have multiple sources where you
can report this and also what to spot so have
some level of community engagement around the training. That's part
of what our coordination will be, so people know what
(15:22):
am I looking for? What do I call human trafficking
right now? You know, and the sort of travel hubs, airports, trains, buses,
all these places are involved in making sure that they
can spot it, but these are employees in these sectors.
We want the public to have ability to do that
(15:42):
as well. So that's what we're working with law enforcement
to say what will be the through line when there's
a call that comes through and what happens. I'll tell
you an example. We're just working in our office right now.
Somebody had called about somebody who was being taken care
of in a hospital and we were looking for housing
for them. So you might report this, you might have
(16:05):
a survivor, and then what happens to the survivor because
remember it takes many times for someone to actually walk
away from this because there has been a mental process
of coercion that has gone on and they are under
the thumb of their abuser. This is very similar to
domestic violence situations, so we have to have those things
(16:25):
in place in order to receive people. We have some
excellent groups already working on the ground, working with survivors
or providing these services. We just want the public to
know who they are, Where can they know where can
they see the survivor that they hopefully rescued, landed up?
And what is happening and how can we rehabilitate them
back to society. That whole thread is something we want
(16:49):
to make sure. So I want to give you two numbers.
This is a national hotline one eight eight eight three
seven three seven eight eight eight is one national hotline.
And then the local Salvation Army, who does a lot
of work in this space, their number is two six
seven eight three eight five eight six six.
Speaker 1 (17:13):
Well that's very important because we know that right now
the Philadelphia Police Department is very under resourced when it
comes to investigating human trafficking. I had the opportunity to
meet one of the investigators a number of years ago,
maybe about four or five years ago, and she was
telling me that at that time, there were just two
people who were assigned to that and when you think
(17:36):
about the numbers that you just mentioned, and that again
is just the tip of the iceberg. If we're talking
about five hundred individuals, two people, is barely enough to
be able to investigate and try to bring to justice
those traffickers who were involved. So that's another issue that
is definitely in need of assistance and support because there
just isn't enough investigators, and the ones that are there,
(17:59):
I'm sure are very burnt out because this is such
a heavy topic and it's so full of it's so
fraught with emotion, and given the wide variety of ages
of individuals that are human trafficked, then I can imagine
that could be very traumatic even for the investigators.
Speaker 2 (18:17):
I want to that point. By the way, Loreen, I
don't know if you know that we did a sort
of a press conference and a convening to sort of
announce this officially, and we had the DA and the
police Commissioner and many organizations serving these communities, including survivors,
present at that press conference, and the DA actually announced
that he is making a budget ask for his department
(18:38):
to have some dedicated resources for human trafficking, and we
have spoken to the Commissioner as well to see what
the allocation looks like on my team in my office,
we all went to the police department to get the
training that their officers get for human trafficking. It was
eye opening and it was I mean, we thought we
(18:59):
need a lot about human trafficking, but when we went
and got that training, it really hit home. What as
you mentioned, such heavy work and what people are doing.
And then it also has to have a culture shift.
There was a time when law enforcement looked at trafficked
victims as you know, people who are applying the trade
on the street and just cycling them back jail and
(19:22):
then out on the road jail, out on the street. Again.
We have to cut that because they cannot. First of all,
they cannot should not be prosecuted because they were coerced
into this work, and how do we have a lifeline
for them to get out of that. So there's a
culture shift going on as well.
Speaker 1 (19:39):
Yeah, you mentioned when you had the training you were
shocked at what you didn't know. I wonder if there's
anything in particular that struck here, Yeah.
Speaker 2 (19:48):
Very much.
Speaker 1 (19:49):
So.
Speaker 2 (19:49):
I've been sharing this story with a lot of people.
They were talking about young people who go to stores
and steal from stores, right, and when they are, you know,
picked up, it has been found that they are usually
young people with a drug habit. And then you dig deeper,
they're young people with a drug habit that was introduced
(20:11):
to them by a trafficker who then sends them out
to stores to say, you will have to steal in
the amount of your next hit. So you have this
much to steal from this store to bring this merchandise
back in order for me to feed your habit.
Speaker 1 (20:28):
Wow.
Speaker 2 (20:29):
Wow, think about that. So when you see someone shoplifting,
does human trafficking come to mind? No? Right now, to me,
it comes to mind first. That is I do not
know that until I saw that got that training.
Speaker 1 (20:42):
Yeah, no, that's that's that's very eye opening. There is
an episode of a show on HBO which I love,
called The Pit And in this program, there was actually
a plot in which a young woman was brought into
the emergency room and the nurse were suspecting that there
was something going on. And what I thought was interesting
(21:05):
about how this was depicted is that the person that
was hospitalized didn't look like anyone you thought would be
a typical trafficked person. You know, a white female on
the youngest side, and the trafficker herself looked like a
pretty responsible member of society. Right, So we know that
(21:25):
trafficking can take so many different forms. It can get down,
you know, to under resourced individuals, to people that you
would never suspect would be trafficked, and those individuals that
are doing the trafficking sometimes can also go outside of
one stereotype of who you think would be doing that.
Speaker 2 (21:45):
Right, That's right, that's right. I mean, as I said,
it's everywhere. One other thing I want to leave for
your audience, is that another place where you think your
children are safe, sitting at home on there doing a
computer game on some gaming platform. Gaming platforms have been
infiltrated by human traffickers who masquerade as young people playing
(22:08):
the game and get close to the young people's person
sitting at home parents thinking they're safe, and start a
relationship and grooms them online and then ures them outside
somewhere and boom, they're gone. They're kidnapped. So I just
want to say it can it has tentacles everywhere talked
(22:28):
about the shoplifting to the sitting at your home, and
there's actually been recent cases that have been brought to
trial around this issue of roboox. I think y Set
was fined massively for this, but remember all these fines.
We've had motels fined in Northeast Philadelphia, not for the
first time. They've had huge settlements against them, but they
(22:49):
don't stop because the process, the whole trade is so lucrative.
So we really have to make our not only keep
prosecuting and keep holding having accountability and concept what we
have to tell our public. You can't get yourself in
that space ever, and these are what to look out for.
Speaker 1 (23:06):
Well, this is so important to raise awareness about human
trafficking because, as you say, it can take so many
different forms from so many different avenues, and it's very
important to raise awareness. So once again, give us a
little bit of a timeline on what we can expect
for this campaign and again what we can do as
concerned citizens to raise awareness and also do something about it.
Speaker 2 (23:29):
So Public Safety is hopefully going to roll out a
timeline soon of how things are going to occur and
who's going to execute on many of these initiatives. There's
going to be a branding and messaging campaign that'll roll
this off, start this off, and then there will be
tools within that for the public to use, as I mentioned,
(23:51):
you know, calling making that awareness but also getting trained.
All of those pieces are going to come from a
coordinator that is going to be co ordinating these efforts.
All of this should happen early next year. We're right
in the conversation right now of me sharing what my
vision and them taking what they want out of that.
(24:12):
And the money is already even allocated, so it should
be very soon that you'll be getting some kind of
depending on the you know, we're getting our branding person.
They will be making sure everybody is messaged around this issue,
and that'll start a cascade of things. And every January
is Human Trafficking Awareness and Prevention month. I issue a
resolution every January, so I'm hoping by this January we'll
(24:36):
have something that Public Safety can stand with us and
make some announcement. But it will be incremental in the
sense that we'll start with one thing and we build
on it as we go throughout the year. But the
bulk of it will happen in the summer when the
games come here, yes, and us here. So this first
few months are going to be intense planning and some
(24:58):
messaging and branding work and then result in actual, real
campaigns being put into place before just at the summertime.
Speaker 1 (25:06):
Yeah, and I think you make such an important point
because we find that often when we have major sporting
events like the Super Bowl for instance, and in our case,
FIFA coming to Philadelphia. While it's a wonderful thing, it
also is a space in which a lot of trafficking
does occur. So your timing is absolutely spot on because
(25:28):
we need to get everything into place before the hundreds
of thousands of people start descending on the city of
Philadelphia for not only FIFA at the World Cup, but
also for the two fifty anniversary of the city, and
that's going to also bring a huge crowd of people.
But once again, bad actors are everywhere where there's large
(25:48):
crowds of people, and so this campaign is absolutely critical
to get into place if people want more information about
the work that you're doing on this issue. And also,
let's repeat those numbers to call for anyone who needs
help or would like to report human trafficking tell us more.
Speaker 2 (26:06):
So we'll start with the numbers again. The national hotline
is one eight eight eight three seven three seven eight
eight eight, and then the local Salvation Army number is
two six seven eight three eight five eight six six.
Please get in touch with our office. Our phone number
(26:26):
is two one five six eight six three four five zero.
We're on all social media platforms a CM Nina Ahmed Ahmad,
so it's all one word. You'll find me on Instagram,
Facebook and X and then you can also contact us
directly through the web portal on City Council's website. We
(26:51):
check those messages religiously so you can reach out, and
then once you reach out, we will share a specific email.
It's too long a name to spell out right on
the air to tell you exactly who to email, but
you can always email me and I will send it
to the right space. Just that my inbox is very flooded,
so best to go through the portal, or if you must,
(27:12):
email me Nina Ni Na last and then dot Ahmad
at Phila, phi LA dot gov GOP, so any which
way you can reach us, multiple pathways. We'll be happy
to work with whomever reaches out to us. I have
some excellent staff who are working on this and I
(27:32):
always want to make sure anytime I talk publicly, this
work would not be done without this wonderful team that
I have supported all of this, so I'm very grateful
to them.
Speaker 1 (27:42):
Well, we're very grateful to you for this campaign. Philadelphia
City Council Member Nina Ahmad who's leading a powerful new
effort to combat human trafficking in our city. He proposed
legislation part of the Red Card Philly campaign aims to
launch a multilingual citywide public education initiative throughout the city
using all the different forms of media. We want to
(28:02):
thank you so much for doing what you're doing and
raising awareness about human trafficking.
Speaker 2 (28:07):
Thank you so much for having me.
Speaker 1 (28:09):
You can listen to all of today's interviews by going
to our station website and typing in keyword Community. You
can also listen on the iHeartRadio app Keywords Philadelphia Community Podcast.
Follow me on Twitter and Instagram at Lorraine Ballard. I'm
Lorraine Ballard MOREL and I stand for service to our
community and media that empowers. What will you stand for?
(28:29):
You've been listening to what's going on, and thank you
Good morning, Welcome to What's going on, a show about
making a difference in our lives and our communities. I'm
Lorraine Balladmorrow, hoping you had a wonderful Thanksgiving holiday. Before
we dive in, I want to highlight a couple of
meaningful events I attended last week. Big shout out to
City Year, where I served on a panel during their
(00:20):
annual Women's Leadership luncheon. My son participated in City Year's
Young Heroes program in middle school, and I've seen firsthand
the impact they make. City Year's mission is to advance
educational outcomes for all students and develop the next generation
of leaders through national service. They provided crucial support and
mentorship to students in under resourced neighborhoods, and their work
(00:43):
truly moves the needle. Under President Trump, City Year lost
its federal funding, which means community support and events like
this matter more than ever. If you're able to visit
CityYear dot org and learn how you can help. Also
a special shout out to Loreena Marshall Blake, president of
the Independence Blue Cross Foundation and co chair of this
(01:03):
year's luncheon. It was also her birthday, and for all
of you who know her and all the things that
she's done for our community. This would be a wonderful
birthday present. On Monday, I amc the University of Pennsylvania's
Center for AIDS Research Community Advisory Board Red Ribbon Awards,
the organization also known as Penn's CEAFARCAB, honoring community activists, providers,
(01:28):
and researchers dedicated to the HIV AIDS response. Monday was
also World Aid's Day, and for the first time since
nineteen eighty eight, the Trump administration declined to acknowledge it,
breaking a decades long tradition. In my view, World Age
Day remains essential because it keeps HIV visible, combat stigma,
(01:50):
honors those we've lost, and sustains momentum towards better prevention, treatment,
and health equity. I was truly honored to join Pennsafest
CAB and recognizing the extraordinary individuals working towards a future
of zero infections, zero deaths, and zero stigma. And now
to this morning's show. Human trafficking remains one of the
(02:14):
most hidden and urgent crises facing our communities. Globally, it's
described as modern day slavery. Locally, it's a devastating reality
for far too many in Philadelphia and across Pennsylvania. According
to the National Human Trafficking Hotline, more than fifty four
hundred victims have been identified across the state, with thousands
(02:35):
of tips and reports confirming trafficking activity. And in a
study of Philadelphia's homeless youth, researchers found that nearly one
in five had experienced some form of trafficking, including sex
trafficking and forced labor. That's why the efforts and message
of today's guest is so we're speaking with Philadelphia City
Council Member Nina Ahmad, who's leading a powerful new effort
(02:58):
to combat human trafficking in our city. Her proposed legislation,
part of the Red Card Philly campaign, aims to launch
a multilingual citywide public education initiative using posters, PSAs, social media,
and outreach in transportation hubs in high traffic areas with
a proposed five hundred thousand dollars investment. The goal is clear,
(03:18):
equip residents and visitors for the tools to identify and
report human trafficking, protect vulnerable individuals, and strengthen community wide
awareness and action. So thank you so much for joining
us here today and for this initiative. Tell us. What
inspired you to introduce this bill and create the red
Card Philly campaign.
Speaker 2 (03:39):
First of all, thank you Loraine for having me, for
giving me this platform to share with your listening audience
and hopefully a lot of Philadelphia what we are doing.
They elected me and I am their public servant, and
so this issue is not because I'm a city council member.
This is something I've cared about long before I was
in any kind of you know, political position, appointed position.
(04:04):
You know my history as a child, having lived through
a war. In that war, I saw how women and
girls and marginalized people were treated. Over two hundred and
fifty thousand women and girls were brutalized as a tool
of war. So right then I understood that, you know,
we have to give a voice to the voiceless and
(04:24):
work to rectify some of these inequities that are all
over our world. And from that, when I was Deputy
mayor in twenty twenty six twenty sixteen with the first
term of Jim Kenny, I met Judge Lourie Dumas and
doctor Ellen Joe Waller, the first lady of a non
(04:46):
Baptist Tabernacle church who has a whole ministry around human
trafficking from whom I learned and saw what was happening
around again marginalized communities. So it piacked my interest since
then to see how are we combating this and the
fact that this is a global illicit trade which is
hugely profitable and so it will take all of us
(05:09):
to combat it. And the second thing is here in
Philadelphia there's a lack of awareness. I think if we
increase our awareness, we could reduce how people got trafficked.
So those are all the kind of threads that brought
me here, and I want to use my role as
city council and every opportunity I get.
Speaker 1 (05:27):
For those who are unfamiliar, can you explain what human
trafficking looks like in Philadelphia and why this public education
approach is so essential.
Speaker 2 (05:37):
So human trafficking can be labor trafficking and sex trafficking.
Both of those are course situations. So in terms of
sex trafficking, it is getting people to give illicit services
because prostitution is illegal. However, this is about forcing people
against their will and keeping them requested from society and
(06:02):
really demanding them to do certain kinds of provide certain
kinds of services. It also involves a lot of times
using drugs to manipulate people, and so people are at
the mercy of who is in control of this trade,
and they target vulnerable people. They look for runaways, they
look for people who might be having other issues, and
(06:24):
then those people are targeted to put into this coerced
sex trade. The labor trafficking is where people are either
brought in or used for labor in many different situations,
including farm work, including factory work, where you get these
folks that you say you're going to give them a job,
(06:46):
You bring them in and you take all their identity away,
meaning their passport or anything else, and they have to
pay off the trafficker for being able to get that job,
and that job is never paid off, so you're forever
enslaved in that situation. So these are the two major
kinds of trafficking we have. So the issue with trafficking
(07:09):
in Philadelphia, particularly the sex trafficking, is what we're mostly
focusing on in this twenty twenty six. Our numbers are
hard to come by. However, I do have numbers because
there's lack of awareness, right, so that sort of fits
into itself. But let me just give you some numbers.
I have from a report that's going to maybe has
(07:30):
been already publisher coming out from the Salvation Army, and
those numbers were that this past year without women organized
against rape, not their numbers, just purely survivors outside that
there was four hundred and ninety seven people trafficked. So
that's almost five hundred people off them. Three hundred were
(07:52):
sex trafficked, one hundred and seventy one were labor trafficked,
and thirty seven were sex and labor.
Speaker 1 (07:59):
And we know this is an under report right exactly.
It's the tip of the iceberg, isn't it. Yes, you know,
And there's another layer that we have to add to
all of the coercive methods that are being used to
enslave individuals, and that is the state of immigration right now,
because that's the additional threat that trafficker can lay on
(08:20):
someone who is not here as an undocumented individual. So
with the layer of fear that already exists out there
in our communities, I'm sure that that's another huge factor.
Speaker 2 (08:33):
Absolutely. Anyway to take away agency from someone then lets
you manipulate them, right. And I was just talking to
somebody about this issue of particularly about the sex trafficking
Why is it so lucrative? If you think about drug use, right,
you give someone a dose of a drug and they
(08:54):
use it up, it's gone. With the sex trafficking, you
can use the same person over and over and over
again to provide these services. Right, So you can see why.
And then you and you put the two together, drugs
and coursed sexual services. It just amplifies. And then put
(09:18):
onto it the layer of not having your papers and
being in the dark. You're not going to complain about anybody.
You're not going to go to anybody to say and
that makes everybody less safe, not just the person being
targeted who might be undocumented, but everybody around them, because
these traffickers then get emboldened and they're going to start
(09:39):
getting into other spaces that are for people who are
here with their legal status. So this does not stay
contained in one area. It spreads just like a virus.
Speaker 1 (09:50):
Now, the campaign includes a multi lingual outreach. Why is
language accessibility such a critical part of this strategy.
Speaker 2 (09:59):
You just mentioned that the immigrant community is at risk,
and we also have, you know, native born people here
who might speak a different language. Right, we have people
who speak Spanish, We have all kinds of people in Philadelphia.
We are a very multicultural city, and anything that makes
(10:19):
you vulnerable, and when you don't have language access and
you don't have language skills, that's another vulnerability that people
can exploit. So that's why having information go to everyone
so that everyone can understand and see what role they
can play to combat it is critical.
Speaker 1 (10:36):
You propose placing materials and transportation hubs and other high
traffic locations, how does this placement help reach individuals who
make witness or experience trafficking.
Speaker 2 (10:46):
So we are right now, actually the Public Office of
Public Safety is going to be executing on this amount
of money that I was able to secure, and they're
going to roll out how this coordination will work, and
they're in the process of figuring out what we're when,
what RFPs will look like, and all of that that's
(11:07):
not in my purview. My one was getting them the
resources and sharing my vision. So those details are forthcoming.
They'll come sooner than later. And in fact, I just
had a conversation today about saying, we need to move
this along to understand what are the levers we're pushing.
So it will include what you mentioned, but will also
(11:27):
include training, So there'll be places hubs where we can
do training. There's a bill in the House of Pennsylvania
House Build twelve eighty six that is actually going to
require all people involved with hotels and hotels and airbnbs
to train staff to spot human trafficking. And so we're
(11:53):
going to be whether that passes right now, it's in
the process it you know, hopefully it'll pass soon. But
we're going to actually take that and work with their
hospitality industry to start the training process because they're already
doing some of it, to amplify it, to see where
the gaps are, and to make sure what does someone
do once you spot someone, where do you report it?
(12:14):
How do you make sure the authorities are responding? And
then we want to collect data to say this happened,
so we can see where are the hotspots. We can
see what worked and what didn't work right, and then
we have to take care of survivors once you report
it and they have been rescued, what is happening to
our survivors. I'm introducing a bill on this Thursday that
(12:36):
is about making sure that the people who are survivors
of human trafficking, once they're employed, that status is not
held against them. They're not discriminated because of that status.
You know, we have lots of safeguards in our code
in Philadelphia, human traffic has never been mentioned ever. This
(12:56):
is the first time we're going to introduce that, saying
that it's a sub group of Philadelphians who are people
who have survived human trafficking and we want to make
sure they're not impeded in any way to do their
work as an employee in the city of Philadelphia. So
lots of things.
Speaker 1 (13:12):
Yeah, yeah, you mentioned about training the hospitality industry, and
I did an interview a number of years ago with
a lawyer who was involved with this issue, and he
was talking about the complicity of many major corporations, whether
they're hotel chains or whether their truck stops or there's
lots of different categories of businesses and corporations that either
(13:34):
intentionally or turn a blind eye to human trafficking.
Speaker 2 (13:39):
For the reason I mentioned, very lucrative. Right, So you
are seeing what is happening on our national landscape with
the Epstein files that is human trafficking. Yeah, absolutely, that's
what we're dealing with. It is endemic everywhere. So when
we do this kind of bringing in daylight into this situation.
(14:01):
That's when hotels and hotels and all who have been
quietly being concluding in this space are going to be
brought up into the sunshine to say, hey, without accusing
anybody to say, you have to be partners in this work.
We're going to see how your partners in this work.
We're going to see how you're doing the training, and
we are going to come and work with you to
(14:21):
make sure that you are actually implementing these campaigns that
we are working so hard to spread across the city
of Philadelphia. So that kind of disinfectant of sunshine is
what we want to use with this campaign as well,
and focus it on places we know, as you mentioned,
have been complicit.
Speaker 1 (14:40):
I wonder if you could talk a little bit about
our own ability to contribute and to help. I'm sure
there are a lot of people out there who would like
to be able to assist, but probably don't understand or
don't know what to look for or what resources are
available if they do encounter human trafficking.
Speaker 2 (14:58):
That's exactly what we want to put out. There should
be a number to call, and there will be by
the end of our interview. I'll give you a number
just for your audience right now, but we're going to
obviously work on that and have multiple sources where you
can report this and also what to spot so have
some level of community engagement around the training. That's part
of what our coordination will be, so people know what
(15:22):
am I looking for? What do I call human trafficking
right now? You know, and the sort of travel hubs, airports, trains, buses,
all these places are involved in making sure that they
can spot it, but these are employees in these sectors.
We want the public to have ability to do that
(15:42):
as well. So that's what we're working with law enforcement
to say what will be the through line when there's
a call that comes through and what happens. I'll tell
you an example. We're just working in our office right now.
Somebody had called about somebody who was being taken care
of in a hospital and we were looking for housing
for them. So you might report this, you might have
(16:05):
a survivor, and then what happens to the survivor because
remember it takes many times for someone to actually walk
away from this because there has been a mental process
of coercion that has gone on and they are under
the thumb of their abuser. This is very similar to
domestic violence situations, so we have to have those things
(16:25):
in place in order to receive people. We have some
excellent groups already working on the ground, working with survivors
or providing these services. We just want the public to
know who they are, Where can they know where can
they see the survivor that they hopefully rescued, landed up?
And what is happening and how can we rehabilitate them
back to society. That whole thread is something we want
(16:49):
to make sure. So I want to give you two numbers.
This is a national hotline one eight eight eight three
seven three seven eight eight eight is one national hotline.
And then the local Salvation Army, who does a lot
of work in this space, their number is two six
seven eight three eight five eight six six.
Speaker 1 (17:13):
Well that's very important because we know that right now
the Philadelphia Police Department is very under resourced when it
comes to investigating human trafficking. I had the opportunity to
meet one of the investigators a number of years ago,
maybe about four or five years ago, and she was
telling me that at that time, there were just two
people who were assigned to that and when you think
(17:36):
about the numbers that you just mentioned, and that again
is just the tip of the iceberg. If we're talking
about five hundred individuals, two people, is barely enough to
be able to investigate and try to bring to justice
those traffickers who were involved. So that's another issue that
is definitely in need of assistance and support because there
just isn't enough investigators, and the ones that are there,
(17:59):
I'm sure are very burnt out because this is such
a heavy topic and it's so full of it's so
fraught with emotion, and given the wide variety of ages
of individuals that are human trafficked, then I can imagine
that could be very traumatic even for the investigators.
Speaker 2 (18:17):
I want to that point. By the way, Loreen, I
don't know if you know that we did a sort
of a press conference and a convening to sort of
announce this officially, and we had the DA and the
police Commissioner and many organizations serving these communities, including survivors,
present at that press conference, and the DA actually announced
that he is making a budget ask for his department
(18:38):
to have some dedicated resources for human trafficking, and we
have spoken to the Commissioner as well to see what
the allocation looks like on my team in my office,
we all went to the police department to get the
training that their officers get for human trafficking. It was
eye opening and it was I mean, we thought we
(18:59):
need a lot about human trafficking, but when we went
and got that training, it really hit home. What as
you mentioned, such heavy work and what people are doing.
And then it also has to have a culture shift.
There was a time when law enforcement looked at trafficked
victims as you know, people who are applying the trade
on the street and just cycling them back jail and
(19:22):
then out on the road jail, out on the street. Again.
We have to cut that because they cannot. First of all,
they cannot should not be prosecuted because they were coerced
into this work, and how do we have a lifeline
for them to get out of that. So there's a
culture shift going on as well.
Speaker 1 (19:39):
Yeah, you mentioned when you had the training you were
shocked at what you didn't know. I wonder if there's
anything in particular that struck here, Yeah.
Speaker 2 (19:48):
Very much.
Speaker 1 (19:49):
So.
Speaker 2 (19:49):
I've been sharing this story with a lot of people.
They were talking about young people who go to stores
and steal from stores, right, and when they are, you know,
picked up, it has been found that they are usually
young people with a drug habit. And then you dig deeper,
they're young people with a drug habit that was introduced
(20:11):
to them by a trafficker who then sends them out
to stores to say, you will have to steal in
the amount of your next hit. So you have this
much to steal from this store to bring this merchandise
back in order for me to feed your habit.
Speaker 1 (20:28):
Wow.
Speaker 2 (20:29):
Wow, think about that. So when you see someone shoplifting,
does human trafficking come to mind? No? Right now, to me,
it comes to mind first. That is I do not
know that until I saw that got that training.
Speaker 1 (20:42):
Yeah, no, that's that's that's very eye opening. There is
an episode of a show on HBO which I love,
called The Pit And in this program, there was actually
a plot in which a young woman was brought into
the emergency room and the nurse were suspecting that there
was something going on. And what I thought was interesting
(21:05):
about how this was depicted is that the person that
was hospitalized didn't look like anyone you thought would be
a typical trafficked person. You know, a white female on
the youngest side, and the trafficker herself looked like a
pretty responsible member of society. Right, So we know that
(21:25):
trafficking can take so many different forms. It can get down,
you know, to under resourced individuals, to people that you
would never suspect would be trafficked, and those individuals that
are doing the trafficking sometimes can also go outside of
one stereotype of who you think would be doing that.
Speaker 2 (21:45):
Right, That's right, that's right. I mean, as I said,
it's everywhere. One other thing I want to leave for
your audience, is that another place where you think your
children are safe, sitting at home on there doing a
computer game on some gaming platform. Gaming platforms have been
infiltrated by human traffickers who masquerade as young people playing
(22:08):
the game and get close to the young people's person
sitting at home parents thinking they're safe, and start a
relationship and grooms them online and then ures them outside
somewhere and boom, they're gone. They're kidnapped. So I just
want to say it can it has tentacles everywhere talked
(22:28):
about the shoplifting to the sitting at your home, and
there's actually been recent cases that have been brought to
trial around this issue of roboox. I think y Set
was fined massively for this, but remember all these fines.
We've had motels fined in Northeast Philadelphia, not for the
first time. They've had huge settlements against them, but they
(22:49):
don't stop because the process, the whole trade is so lucrative.
So we really have to make our not only keep
prosecuting and keep holding having accountability and concept what we
have to tell our public. You can't get yourself in
that space ever, and these are what to look out for.
Speaker 1 (23:06):
Well, this is so important to raise awareness about human
trafficking because, as you say, it can take so many
different forms from so many different avenues, and it's very
important to raise awareness. So once again, give us a
little bit of a timeline on what we can expect
for this campaign and again what we can do as
concerned citizens to raise awareness and also do something about it.
Speaker 2 (23:29):
So Public Safety is hopefully going to roll out a
timeline soon of how things are going to occur and
who's going to execute on many of these initiatives. There's
going to be a branding and messaging campaign that'll roll
this off, start this off, and then there will be
tools within that for the public to use, as I mentioned,
(23:51):
you know, calling making that awareness but also getting trained.
All of those pieces are going to come from a
coordinator that is going to be co ordinating these efforts.
All of this should happen early next year. We're right
in the conversation right now of me sharing what my
vision and them taking what they want out of that.
(24:12):
And the money is already even allocated, so it should
be very soon that you'll be getting some kind of
depending on the you know, we're getting our branding person.
They will be making sure everybody is messaged around this issue,
and that'll start a cascade of things. And every January
is Human Trafficking Awareness and Prevention month. I issue a
resolution every January, so I'm hoping by this January we'll
(24:36):
have something that Public Safety can stand with us and
make some announcement. But it will be incremental in the
sense that we'll start with one thing and we build
on it as we go throughout the year. But the
bulk of it will happen in the summer when the
games come here, yes, and us here. So this first
few months are going to be intense planning and some
(24:58):
messaging and branding work and then result in actual, real
campaigns being put into place before just at the summertime.
Speaker 1 (25:06):
Yeah, and I think you make such an important point
because we find that often when we have major sporting
events like the Super Bowl for instance, and in our case,
FIFA coming to Philadelphia. While it's a wonderful thing, it
also is a space in which a lot of trafficking
does occur. So your timing is absolutely spot on because
(25:28):
we need to get everything into place before the hundreds
of thousands of people start descending on the city of
Philadelphia for not only FIFA at the World Cup, but
also for the two fifty anniversary of the city, and
that's going to also bring a huge crowd of people.
But once again, bad actors are everywhere where there's large
(25:48):
crowds of people, and so this campaign is absolutely critical
to get into place if people want more information about
the work that you're doing on this issue. And also,
let's repeat those numbers to call for anyone who needs
help or would like to report human trafficking tell us more.
Speaker 2 (26:06):
So we'll start with the numbers again. The national hotline
is one eight eight eight three seven three seven eight
eight eight, and then the local Salvation Army number is
two six seven eight three eight five eight six six.
Please get in touch with our office. Our phone number
(26:26):
is two one five six eight six three four five zero.
We're on all social media platforms a CM Nina Ahmed Ahmad,
so it's all one word. You'll find me on Instagram,
Facebook and X and then you can also contact us
directly through the web portal on City Council's website. We
(26:51):
check those messages religiously so you can reach out, and
then once you reach out, we will share a specific email.
It's too long a name to spell out right on
the air to tell you exactly who to email, but
you can always email me and I will send it
to the right space. Just that my inbox is very flooded,
so best to go through the portal, or if you must,
(27:12):
email me Nina Ni Na last and then dot Ahmad
at Phila, phi LA dot gov GOP, so any which
way you can reach us, multiple pathways. We'll be happy
to work with whomever reaches out to us. I have
some excellent staff who are working on this and I
(27:32):
always want to make sure anytime I talk publicly, this
work would not be done without this wonderful team that
I have supported all of this, so I'm very grateful
to them.
Speaker 1 (27:42):
Well, we're very grateful to you for this campaign. Philadelphia
City Council Member Nina Ahmad who's leading a powerful new
effort to combat human trafficking in our city. He proposed
legislation part of the Red Card Philly campaign aims to
launch a multilingual citywide public education initiative throughout the city
using all the different forms of media. We want to
(28:02):
thank you so much for doing what you're doing and
raising awareness about human trafficking.
Speaker 2 (28:07):
Thank you so much for having me.
Speaker 1 (28:09):
You can listen to all of today's interviews by going
to our station website and typing in keyword Community. You
can also listen on the iHeartRadio app Keywords Philadelphia Community Podcast.
Follow me on Twitter and Instagram at Lorraine Ballard. I'm
Lorraine Ballard MOREL and I stand for service to our
community and media that empowers. What will you stand for?
(28:29):
You've been listening to what's going on, and thank you
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