Human trafficking is happening on Hilton Head. Here are 10 things to know.

Headlines in our paper this summer were jarring:

“Four Beaufort County men charged with child trafficking.” (June 14)

“Beaufort County child sex trafficking case grows larger.” (July 16)

“Two child sex trafficking suspects from Beaufort County granted bond.” (July 26)

They lifted a curtain on a sick side of life that we tend to think only exists overseas.

My church hosted two women from the 14th Circuit Solicitor's office Victims Services Center last week to open our eyes even further. Michelle Fraser and Jennifer Talley help young, local girls being trafficked for labor or for sex — usually sex. They said the girls fall in with a “handler” and are led to believe they are loved and cared for, not abused. They're given pricey items they wanted but couldn't afford, only to learn they have to pay a price for it. And quickly drugs get involved.

Here are 10 takeaways from their remarks that we all need to know about human trafficking.

It's here.

“We often hear that it's not happening in Beaufort County,” Fraser said. “That's a bold-faced lie. It is happening and has been for quite some time in Beaufort County.”

These are our children. “Seventy percent of human trafficking victims go to school every day,” Talley said. “They can be making good grades. Their parents or grandparents don’t now it’s happening.”

It's a local industry. “A lot of the handlers are from Beaufort County,” Fraser said. They traffic in humans because one victim can produce a steady stream of income. On the other hand, if they sell stolen firearms or drugs, they have to constantly replenish their supply.

The sickest part. Human trafficking victims can be less than 1 year old. Talley has worked elsewhere with a victim age 9 whose drug-addicted mother started pimping her out for sex when she was just a few months old. The child was found in Atlanta eating out of a garbage can. She was 3.

The saddest part. “The hardest part for me is that you cannot force people to accept help,” Talley said. “Juveniles are reported, but If they are 18 years old and above, they can do what they wish.”

Nowhere to go. It's hard to get human-trafficking victims to acknowledge what they are doing or to cooperate with authorities. But when a victim can be rescued, there's usually nowhere to put them.

“Help us get housing for these children,” Fraser said. “We have one house in all of South Carolina to house female juveniles in human trafficking. We have nowhere to house male juveniles in South Carolina.”

She said there are 20,000 reported cases of human trafficking nationally each year, but there are only 1,780 beds in the entire United States for victims of trafficking.

Other alternatives — either returning them to their same situation, or putting them in with the violent criminals in the state juvenile jail — are bad.

We're in a “hot spot.” Beaufort County is in a prime location for human traffickers. They want to be near the intersection of two interstates, and we have I-95 going north and south and I-16 headed west out of Savannah.

Human trafficking victims and their handlers often work out of motels on I-95. And Hilton Head Island has another attraction for the sex-trafficking business: men who attend the island's annual professional golf tournament. The PGA Tour event, like all other major sporting events, fuels business for the sex trade.

Don't turn a blind eye. Ask yourself, “Why are 15 women living in a two-bedroom apartment?” “How does a 13-year-old girl afford a $700 handbag?” “Why are the same men streaming so frequenting into that massage parlor?” If you see something, say something.

Do not intervene. You could get shot or be hurt. Instead, make a call.

It's not a local call. If you see an emergency situation, call 911. But when you see something that doesn't add up, report your tip to the National Human Trafficking Hotline at 888-373-7888 or text “INFO” to 233733.

That will set local agencies in motion. Your tip will be anonymous. And it is better to err on the side of caution. They'd rather get a bad tip than no tip.

David Lauderdale can be reached at [email protected].