Hotel Association of NYC Highlights Human Trafficking

ECPAT-USA was proud to present to the Hotel Association of New York City’s Security/ Safety Seminar on Tuesday, April 25, 2017. The seminar, which was attended by over 80 travel professionals highlighted the important role of hotels employees in identify and reporting human trafficking and child sexual exploitation.

NYPD Commissioner James P. O’Neill and other top ranking officials from the New York City Police Department, the United States Bureau of Investigation, and the United States Department of Homeland Security and New York City Emergency Management were also in attendance.

ECPAT-USA’s director of private sector engagement, Michelle Guelbart, discussed recently introduced New York State legislation that will require hotels to train on the issue. “If the hospitality industry does not train on this issue, hotels will continue to remain an anonymous and risk-free location for traffickers to run their businesses,” Guelbart said. “We are happy HANYC continues to keep this issue on their agenda.”

The presentation gave an overview of the issue, went over the indicators of human trafficking and child exploitation for hotels, and outlined protocols for front-line employees and managers. Position specific indicators and tools were also made available to attendees.

To learn more about our work with private sector engagement, click here