NC Budget Gives Lifelines to Victims of Human Trafficking
Raleigh, N.C. — North Carolina’s budget, which was recently signed into law, provides a lifeline to victims of human trafficking.
Sen. Ted Alexander (R-Cleveland) said, “Human trafficking is all too prevalent in North Carolina. We have the means to both combat this criminal behavior and to help victims caught up in the vicious cycle of exploitation and coercion. Our budget provides millions of dollars to organizations that help human trafficking victims transition to a better life.”
According to the N.C. Department of Administration, “human trafficking is one of the fastest-growing crimes in the United States with North Carolina among the most affected states.”
Human trafficking is “a crime by which people profit from the control and exploitation of others for the purposes of commercial sex acts, labor, or services.” It doesn’t necessarily involve moving people from one location to another — coercion and exploitation for particular purposes are the key characteristics of the crime.
North Carolina’s budget offers new resources and policy changes to assist victims of human trafficking.
The budget waived expunction costs for human trafficking victims, which allows survivors of human trafficking who were cited for participating in sex work to clear their records at no cost.
The budget also allocated $3.2 million in funding to nonprofit organizations that help victims of human trafficking with services like case management, education, and employment assistance.
An additional $1.1 million was allocated to strengthen existing services to help victims of human trafficking recover and transition to a better life.
The budget also provided $4.4 million to the state’s Human Trafficking Commission to develop and implement a grant program for economic assistance and other services to human trafficking victims, plus $4.8 million for capital improvements to agencies that assist victims of sexual assault.
Lastly, the budget provides for eight sworn law enforcement officers within the State Bureau of Investigation focused on human trafficking enforcement.
