At the start of this week, the Federal Bureau of Investigation confirmed that its sex trafficking annual crackdown has recently rescued nearly 170 victims last week. The victims, of which all 168 of them were children used for sex trade, authorities have also apprehended 281 pimps during the same period on state and federal charges.
FBI Director James Comey in his announcement of the Operation Cross Country measure, emphasized the gravity of the amount of children rescued. He said, "These are not faraway kids in faraway lands. These are America's children. I hate that we have to do this work - hate it. I love the people who've devoted their lives to doing this work. There is no more meaningful work that the FBI participates in than rescuing children."
The Associated Press said that this is the eight week-long operation, of which this year had unfolded in 106 cities. The FBI declared that their initiative so far has saved around 3,600 children from the streets. He also said that the operations that they have continuously been doing are designed to "crush out" the pimps and show how children should not be sold. The FBI has the intention of saving more children from similar fates on street corners, in truck stops and on the Internet.
According to officials, one challenge is that majority of the children who have recovered were never reported missing by parents, guardians and the entire child welfare system in the first place.
Chief Executive Officer John Ryan of the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children said, "No one is reporting them missing. Hence, no one is looking for them. But for operations like this, these children likely would never have been found."
Ryan is suggesting that US lawmakers create better laws that require child services to report children who have disappeared. Out of the 51 US states, Ryan said only two of them have imposed such legal measure to ensure missing children has been reported.
