Slavery sounds like a problem from the past. But, Monday night, a group talked about how human trafficking could be a problem today. In the past five months, there have been three investigations into possible prostitution at local massage parlors and whether the women arrested were there on their own free will. WFMZ's Pam Cunningham reports.

[ WEB LINK: ( National Human Trafficking Resource Center ) ]
[ WEB LINK: ( Identifying And Interacting With Victims Of Human Trafficking ) ] 
[ WEB LINK: ( Numbers On Human Trafficking From Stanford University ) ]
  
>> FREE is a new group founded by a man from Boyertown. It stands for Freedom and Restoration from Everyone Enslaved. He started the group because of his travels abroad.. but is concerned slavery could be here too. 

>> REPORTER: At Morningstar Fellowship a few dozen people gathered to learn about human trafficking. FREE's leader Bob Morrison explains what he has seen throughout the world. 

>>BOB MORRISON: And I begun to see in Northern Uganda young children being taken and abducted and forced to become soldiers. 

>> REPORTER: But imagine a woman is brought to this country and forced to have sex to pay off her debts to her smugglers. That is the scenario he believes could be connected to the massage parlor arrests in May and last month. 

>> MORRISON: So the prostitution problem that we are aware of in the Reading area where there's smoke there's flames and so beneath that is very likely there's human trafficking where there these girls that are being coerced, abducted in some cases and brought into this country and brought into the life of prostitution. 

>> MICHAEL GOMBAR: Many people question whether the fact they're here out of their own free will or whether someone is forcing them to be here and that's something we are investigating at this point we haven't determined that at this point. 

>> REPORTER: Berks County Detectives say it's too early to tell but they are concerned. 

>> MICHAEL GOMBAR: It's a horrifying crime if it is occurring and we need to put a stop. Human slavery for sex doesn't get much worse then that. 

>> REPORTER: Detective Gombar was at this meeting to show law enforcement's involvement. And FREE is trying to get people to recognize the problem of human trafficking. 

>> MORRISON: Research has shown that 1 third of the victims that are rescued in this country are identified by average everyday people. 

>> Another speaker Monday night said human trafficking is where domestic abuse was 35 years ago. People didn't know what questions to ask or what signs to look for. They're hoping this starts the conversation and awareness.

( Video won't play? CLICK HERE for some helpful suggestions )

---

e-mail story | print view | rss feeds | wireless | google desktop | podcast