AG Griffin announces inaugural human trafficking summit

Arkansas Attorney General Tim Griffin announced an inaugural two-day human trafficking summit to be held in Little Rock on Oct. 16-17 at the Statehouse Convention Center.

The summit is free to attend and open to the public.

Attendees will hear from both national and local presenters on topics such as familial trafficking, trauma-informed investigations, human trafficking in the private sector, and strategies to strengthen public and private partnerships.

“Human trafficking is a reprehensible crime that preys on our most vulnerable Arkansans. It disregards human dignity, exploits the innocent and shatters lives. My summit will shed light on the global problem of human trafficking and will provide necessary training to help combat these crimes,” Griffin said.

“All forms of human trafficking, especially sex trafficking of children, needs to be invisible to operate and exist. This conference will provide the skills needed for a multi-disciplinary response to make the invisible visible, identify and recover victims, and hold perpetrators accountable,” said Byron Fassett, Program Manager with the National Criminal Justice Training Center.

According to the Department of Homeland Security, human trafficking “involves the use of force, fraud, or coercion to obtain some type of labor or commercial sex act. … It can happen in any community and victims can be any age, race, gender, or nationality.”

According to a report from the International Labour Organization, Walk Free, and the International Organization for Migration, there were 27.6 million reported global human trafficking cases in 2021. Of those 6.3 million were sexual exploitation victims.

The National Human Trafficking Hotline has since 2007 reported 82,301 U.S. cases of human trafficking, with 164,839 identified victims. In Arkansas, the Hotline has reported 557 cases in Arkansas since 2007, with 1,492 victims identified.

Registration can be found here.