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Bill Seeks to Enlist New York Hotels to Help Fight Sex Trafficking

Anneke Lucas of Brooklyn, a sex-trafficking victim when she was a child, started an online petition calling for legislation to combat trafficking. It has over 54,000 signatures.Credit...James Estrin/The New York Times

Though she had previously sponsored legislation in New York to combat sex trafficking, Assemblywoman Amy Paulin said she had not realized how big a role hotels and hotel workers could play in the fight until she met with two activists.

“They made me aware,” Ms. Paulin said of Anneke Lucas, a sex-trafficking victim, and the Rev. Adrian Dannhauser.

Ms. Lucas started an online petition in January calling for legislation mandating that hotels post clearly visible signs explaining what sex trafficking might look like, and that they train employees how to recognize victims and signs of trafficking. The petition has more than 54,000 signatures.

Possible indicators of sex trafficking include guests who book multiple rooms, rent rooms by the hour and pay cash, or men accompanied by young girls who appear downtrodden or do not make eye contact. Girls tattooed with “Daddy’s Girl,” “Daddy’s Little Money Maker” or bar codes are other potential signs, said Carol Smolenski, the executive director of Ecpat-USA, or End Child Prostitution, Child Pornography and Trafficking of Children for Sexual Purposes, a Brooklyn offshoot of the international group.

Ms. Paulin, a Democrat who represents Westchester County, has introduced a bill that essentially mirrors a 2016 Connecticut law requiring hotels to become more engaged in fighting sex trafficking by training employees to spot victims and common trafficking activity.

It is early in the process — the bill is in the Economic Development Committee — but Ms. Paulin is confident it will become law.

“This is too important,” she said. “We know girls are being trafficked in hotels, and the more awareness we can bring, the greater potential we have of rescuing them and preventing future victims.”

If enacted, Ms. Paulin said, the legislation will apply to “all lodging facilities,” which the bill defines as hotels, motels, motor courts, apartment hotels, resorts, inns, boardinghouses, rooming houses or lodging houses.

“This bill is part of our evolution in fighting sex trafficking,” she said. “We have to keep up with the pimps. They keep evolving, and so do we.”

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Assemblywoman Amy Paulin, a Democrat who represents Westchester County, has introduced a bill that would require hotels to become more engaged in fighting sex trafficking.Credit...Mike Groll/Associated Press

Ms. Paulin helped pass legislation last year requiring hospital staff to be trained to identify trafficking victims and to notify social services when those victims are under 18. She said she believed hotel staff members could serve as front-line defenders against the commercial sex trade.

“Pimps are clever and can avoid some hotels,” she said. “But they can’t avoid all hotels.”

Some hotels are already on board. In March 2016, during the 60th session of the United Nations Commission on the Status of Women, Ms. Dannhauser served as a delegate for the Church of the Incarnation in Manhattan, where she is the associate rector.

During the conference, delegates stayed at the Hampton Inn Grand Central in Manhattan, where Ms. Dannhauser told the hotel’s managers about the Tourism-Child Protection Code of Conduct developed by Ecpat International.

“The management team was incredibly receptive,” she said.

Inspired by her experience at the United Nations, Ms. Dannhauser, who also leads the Task Force Against Human Trafficking for the Episcopal Diocese of New York, started an advocacy ministry at her church to help combat human trafficking.

Ms. Paulin’s bill, like Connecticut’s law, would require that hotel staff members receive training from an approved task force, like Ecpat-USA. Michelle Guelbart, the group’s director of private sector engagement, said the Ecpat training, which was established in coordination with the American Hotel and Lodging Association, would provide a solid blueprint for hotels.

Another similarity is that the legislation would require that hotels display, “in plain view and in a conspicuous place and manner in the lobby and in the public restrooms,” the telephone number of the National Human Trafficking Hotline, which the federal government established in 2007.

Ms. Lucas, a native of Belgium who said she had been trafficked through many hotels in Europe as a child, said she believed this stipulation could save lives.

“Had I seen such a notice, I would have found a way to call that number,” she said. “I was seeking an opportunity to speak up, but didn’t know how.”

Ms. Lucas and Ms. Dannhauser said they planned to take their fight to other states and to Washington, where they have an ally in Representative Carolyn B. Maloney, Democrat of New York, who helps lead the Congressional Caucus on Human Trafficking.

Ms. Maloney supports the Ecpat code, which she said established a “common set of guidelines” for combating trafficking. “Ecpat’s code can drastically reduce traffickers’ ability to exploit children through the tourism industry,” she said.

A version of this article appears in print on  , Section A, Page 13 of the New York edition with the headline: Bill Seeks to Enlist New York Hotels in an Effort to Combat Sex Trafficking. Order Reprints | Today’s Paper | Subscribe

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