Salvation Army Shines Light on Human Trafficking

SARATOGA SPRINGS — The U.S. State Department estimates that, at any given time, there are 27.6 million victims of human trafficking across the globe. There are even victims right here in Saratoga County. Susana Lehan, the Salvation Army’s Eastern Territory Anti-Human Trafficking Director, knows some of them personally. “This is everywhere,” Lehan said. “This is happening in everyone’s backyard.”

Human trafficking is defined as the use of force, fraud, or coercion to compel a person into commercial sex acts or labor services against his or her will.

To raise awareness of this issue, the Salvation Army is hosting an event on January 11 from 12pm to 3pm at 27 Woodlawn Ave in Saratoga Springs. “There’s not a lot of awareness in the communities and all the counties in this area,” Lehan said.

The Human Trafficking Awareness Day event includes a free lunch and a presentation by Julie Chapus, LMSW. Chapus is from Rochester, New York and works with both hair and nail salons, where trafficking victims often interact with workers. “Those are people that have intimate connections with victims,” Lehan said. Traffickers often bring their victims to salons, where workers can see scars and other signs of physical violence.

Lehan said that evidence of trafficking can be hard to spot, even among trained professionals and police officers. “I’ve been in the field for thirty years and I even was not aware of the nuances until I started working with the clients,” she said. 

Lehan’s Anti-Human Trafficking program at the Salvation Army helps to stabilize victims’ lives with housing, employment, clothing, food, and other basic needs. Since she first began working on this program four months ago, Lehan has already acquired at least twenty clients.

According to Lehan, only about 1% of victims report trafficking to anyone, and reports to law enforcement occur even less frequently. While trafficking can be organized by criminal groups, it can also happen in intimate partner relationships. “Individuals are coercing people to enter these situations that they can’t get out of, and it’s by use of force, coercion, or fraud,” Lehan said. The Polaris Project, a nonprofit that aims to combat human trafficking, estimates that in 2020, 39% of victims were recruited via an intimate partner or marriage proposal. 

The objective of the Human Trafficking Awareness Day event in Saratoga is to bring awareness of this ongoing issue to community members and leaders.

“We’re not asking people to intervene or anything in any kind of situation because it’s dangerous,” Lehan said. “However, we’re asking people to just be aware and to be able to pass on a phone number, and if the client feels safe enough to come to us, they can.”

To contact Susana Lehan, call 518-584-1640 or send her an email at susana.lehan@use.salvationarmy.org.