‘Nobody asked questions’: Metra broadens human trafficking prevention campaign
In 2019, Metra started a poster campaign on trains to reach out and offer help to young sex trafficking victims.
Six years later, the railroad is expanding those efforts to prevent human trafficking.
“So many people have no idea what human trafficking really is and how much it exists in the U.S. and in the world,” Metra Executive Director Jim Derwinski said. “It is commercial sex, forced labor and also indentured servitude.
“When you think, ‘it doesn’t happen in my backyard’ — it absolutely happens in our backyard,” he said at a Wednesday meeting.
Metra works with DuPage-based Reclaim 13, an organization that serves child trafficking survivors, some of whom reported being transported on public transit.
“I was 13 years old. Small, bruised, starving. Sitting on a Metra train ... to Chicago — and no one noticed. Or maybe they did,” Reclaim 13 Ambassador Cheyene Anthony said at Metra’s “Routes to Safety” conference April 8.
“Maybe they saw a quiet, beat-up little girl,” next to a grown man, “who made excuses. Who avoided eye contact, (and said) ‘Oh, she’s my sister. We’re struggling … she needs to get to school,’” Anthony recounted.
“No one looked deeper. Nobody asked questions. Nobody asked ‘Why are you on a train at 10 a.m. when school started at 7?’ That’s the problem. How many kids like me have slipped through the cracks because someone ignored their gut feeling?” she asked.
In addition to posters about human trafficking, Metra continues to train front line staff to recognize the signs.
Nearly 200 people attended or watched the conference.
“It’s the beginning of a much broader campaign,” Derwinski said, which includes reaching out to other commuter rail agencies across the U.S.
Board Chair Joseph McMahon noted human trafficking has many faces. “It’s not just the sex trade but it can be forced labor, it can be holding work papers, holding passports, preventing people from moving.”
With the “thousands and thousands of people that ride Metra every single day and potentially interact with people who are victims of trafficking, I think raising awareness and educating people … is critically important,” said McMahon, the former Kane County state’s attorney.
The U.S. Department of State estimates there are 27.6 million human trafficking victims across the world at any given time being exploited for profit.
In the U.S., the National Human Trafficking Hotline received over 30,000 concerns via phone, texts, online chats and emails in 2023.
Signs of trouble could include someone exhibiting unusual behavior like acting anxious or fearful, appearing malnourished or exhausted, not dressed for the weather, having bruises or cuts, and being controlled by their traveling companion.
Issues can be reported to Metra police at (312) 322-2800, on go.elerts.com/metra or with the Metra COPS app. Reclaim 13 also has a crisis hotline at (312) 462-3306.