Survivor says hotels play huge role in sex trafficking

Legislation passed in 2019 that requires human trafficking awareness training for lodge operator

Savannah Parvu said she became a victim of human trafficking at the age of 11.

Parvu said her mother sold her to support her drug addiction.

“Her drug dealer offered her a $10 piece of crack for me instead of for her and so she told him that was fine he could do whatever he wanted to me,” she said.

She spent years being trafficked by the man who dealt her mother drugs.

“He would either sell me out of his house or a friend’s house or a local hotel that was in Central Florida,” Parvu said.

Parvu said sometimes she would be left in a hotel room for days at a time, met by multiple strangers until she was granted permission to leave.

“I walked through the hotel I was bleeding, barefoot, bruised crying and nobody ever said anything or asked any questions, they just let me leave,” Parvu said.

Reports from the U.S. National Human Trafficking Hotline show hotels and motels are one of the top five venues for sex trafficking.

Police with the Metropolitan Bureau of Investigation announced Wednesday, three suspects were arrested and accused of trafficking at least three teenagers for sex acts in multiple hotels in Orlando.

The director of the MBI said the suspects offered to take care of the victims before exploiting and manipulating them.

Parvu said victims are not always kidnapped.

“Victims are groomed for a promise of something better whether it’s a relationship or money or a better life,” she said.

She said hotels play a big role in the trafficking business. That is why she helped write legislation passed in 2019 that requires human trafficking awareness training for lodge operators.

The Florida Restaurant and Lodging Association tells News 6 that annual training is mandatory for employees who work at front desks, in reception areas or in housekeeping.

“They could have helped me when I was 11 and I wouldn’t have been trafficked for nearly as long as I was had somebody stepped in and helped,” she said.

Now Parvu tells her story to help other victims.

She said she wants to be the person she needed when she was younger.

From: https://www.clickorlando.com/news/local/2022/02/17/survivor-says-hotels-play-huge-role-in-sex-trafficking/