Human Trafficking & Person’s with Disabilities
Submitted by Monica Schultz
-Liz Kimbel, Survivor, Leader, Co-Founder of Karona Rising
Almost all human trafficking survivors leave their bondage with mental disabilities, and the hurdle they face in tackling their trauma is exponential. Each survivor faces a lifetime of therapy and healing, and that only happens with the right support networks and resources. Imagine facing that journey with an existing disability!
I once worked alongside a survivor, who among many disabilities and illnesses, utilized a wheelchair. The survivor had been with their trafficker for a very long time, and not only was he exploiting the survivor sexually, he was also stealing their disability benefits, which he muscled the survivor’s parents into signing over to him. After escaping the trafficker, we couldn’t figure out why and how he kept finding them, despite our diligence to relocate them over and over, even going as far as moving them to multiple different states. After weeks of desperate maneuvers, one person working alongside them discovered a tracking device attached to the wheelchair that this survivor needed. The trafficker was so invested in keeping this person in their grips, that he’d secured a device to keep them from leaving him.