LYNCHBURG, Va. (WDBJ) – Liberty University is making a commitment to combat human trafficking through a new training program for its aviation students.
Human trafficking is a $150 billion industry affecting people of all ages, genders, race, and immigration status. Individuals can live in any community around the world.
“Human trafficking is the force, fraud or coercion of an individual for the purposes of labor trafficking or sex trafficking. So often, we do think about going across the ocean in a shipment container or we think about an 18-wheeler. You see that a lot in the news. Or even in the trunk of a car, but aviation is one of those things where it’s the most highly regulated industry, yet they’re flying through our airports. Airports aren’t safe harbors; they’re using them,” said the Liberty University Program Director & LUSOA Human Trafficking Training Program Lead, Amber Wilson.
Wilson said it’s important that all sectors of aviation are trained. From pilots to gate agents, linemen and flight attendants, each can recognize signs of human trafficking from a different perspective. Liberty University’s School of Aeronautics developed the LUSOA Human Trafficking Training Program to combat this issue, through a partnership with the Department of Homeland Security.
“Our mission is to train champions for Christ. So, we want our students to be the hands and feet of Jesus, to fulfill that mission, to recognize signs so that they can come alongside and help people who are victims of human trafficking,” said Dean of the School of Aeronautics Steven Brinly.
“General aviation airports touch about 5,000 communities. Our commercial size airports touch about 500. So, it’s very important that our students who are in a lot of these aviation airports are tied in and know what human trafficking is,” said Wilson.
The program incorporates the DHS’s Blue Lightning Initiative, which trains aviation personnel to identify potential traffickers, human trafficking victims and report suspicions to federal law enforcement.
“We have a course here called Aviation Foundations, its AVIA 102. Every single student goes through that class and every single student goes through AVIA 491. That is our aeronautics capstone, that culminating experience so we decided every student will have the training in that class and have recurrent training in the 491 class as they are on their way out,” said Wilson.
The school plans to provide training to all residential and online students through online and in-person training sessions. In the past week alone, Liberty has trained over 150 students and is working to expand training to faculty and staff.
According to the U.S Department of State, there are estimated to be more than 27.6 million adults and children are victims of human trafficking worldwide.
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