New Duluth task force takes on Indian prostitution
by Bob Kelleher, Minnesota Public RadioDuluth, Minn. — The Duluth City Council gets a briefing Monday on a new task force to address reports of human trafficking in Duluth's Native American community.
The task force formed this fall to call attention to the use of human trafficking in prostitution, to identify weaknesses in Duluth's support for victims, and to research the extent of trafficking in Duluth.
Task force coordinator Shunu Shrestha said cases of human trafficking were noticed by a local Native American organization, but she said the problem of girls and women forced into prostitution is not confined to that community.
"We don't have a count as to how many women are victims [or] who are trafficking them," Shrestha said. "We just have [a] general idea that these women have been forced into prostitution."
The task force is a combined effort of the American Indian Housing Community Organization and the Program for Aid to Victims of Sexual Assault.
Bob Kelleher
• ReporterBob Kelleher joined MPR's Duluth News staff in 1990, after three years with a Duluth commercial radio station, and several years on broadcast stations in Iowa.
