News

Univ of MD SAFE Center fights for victims of human trafficking

Published in the Baltimore Sun, Adapted for the MPower website | February 16, 2026

Editor’s Note: The University of Maryland Support, Advocacy, Freedom, and Empowerment (SAFE) Center for Human Trafficking is a signature initiative of the University of Maryland Strategic Partnership: MPowering the State. Since 2016, the SAFE Center has provided a combination of comprehensive legal, social, economic, mental health, and medical services to human trafficking survivors and their families.

Since its founding in 2016, the University of Maryland SAFE Center has helped more than 600 survivors of sex and labor trafficking rebuild their lives — a milestone driven by CEO and founder Susan Esserman’s push to confront a hidden crisis and create a lifeline for victims.

The center is the first university-based program in the nation to provide comprehensive services for sex and trafficking survivors in combination with research and advocacy

to fight human trafficking. The center provides legal assistance, case management, mental health services and economic empowerment opportunities to survivors of trafficking.

As a former deputy U.S. trade representative, Esserman holds the title of ambassador. As a senior counsel at the law firm Steptoe, Esserman, she leads the firm’s pro bono efforts to help survivors of human trafficking. In an interview with The Baltimore Sun, Esserman discusses human trafficking in Maryland and efforts to combat it. The interview has been edited for length and clarity.

What’s the definition of human trafficking?

Trafficking is extreme, brutal exploitation in which the trafficker compels the victim to work against her or his will. It often occurs under violent circumstances and results in a situation where the victim does not feel free to leave.

How prevalent is human trafficking in Maryland?

Like other metropolitan areas, human trafficking is prevalent in the Baltimore and Washington, D.C. metropolitan regions. It’s very difficult to estimate the extent of trafficking in Maryland or even in the United States, for a number of reasons.

First, much of trafficking is hidden from . Second, survivors are very fearful, very reluctant to come forward. And third, survivors often don’t recognize that their situation is trafficking until years after the exploitation.

In Maryland, like many other metropolitan areas, we have highway networks, the I-95 corridor, three international airports, and that attracts an influx of people and facilitates trafficking in this area. Look at our numbers alone; it will be our 10th anniversary in a couple of months. Over that time, we have served over 600 sex and labor trafficking survivors, most of whom were trafficked in this state. I want to mention labor trafficking because so many people only focus on sex trafficking, and many people do not understand labor trafficking. It’s under-investigated and under-prosecuted.

I’ve heard time and again that labor trafficking does not take place in Maryland. However, the majority of our cases at the SAFE center involve labor cases. We conducted a statewide survey and over a recent five-year period, the survey showed that NGOs and service providers assisted over 12,200 labor trafficking survivors. It is a serious issue in this state.

What types of businesses or industries does labor trafficking occur in?

Domestic work is the highest, followed by agriculture, construction, restaurants, bars, other hospitality , and manufacturing. Those are the top.

When it comes to human trafficking for sexual exploitation, is there a typical profile of traffickers?

No, there isn’t a typical profile. Traffickers could be individuals, or they could be part of a network. They can be family members, parents, or intimate partners. They could be pimps, recruiters, or labor contractors. They could be part of criminal syndicates, domestic and foreign.

Coyotes, or smugglers, and gang members are just some of the types of traffickers.

Is there a typical profile of a person who becomes a victim of human trafficking for sexual exploitation?

Traffickers seek to exploit vulnerabilities. Those vulnerabilities come in many forms. They target those who have been subject to sexual abuse or witness violence in the home, people who have run away, people who are homeless or who are dependent on drugs, immigrants who are vulnerable due to their status.

Are there signs that someone may be a victim of human trafficking?

Yes, there are many signs. In a hospital, when someone comes in accompanied by another person and they’re controlling them in every way, they’re not aware of where they are. They don’t have their own documents; they’re looking to this other person in terms of what they should say.

Other signs are bruises and other signs of physical abuse.

Are there specific pieces of legislation that Maryland has passed in recent years to help human trafficking survivors?

Shared Hope International, an international anti-trafficking group that evaluates states’ legislative records, rated Maryland in 2025 as receiving an “A,” along with California and Illinois.

In 2019, Maryland lawmakers passed the Child Sex Trafficking Screening Act. It provided for and funded regional navigators, or coordinators, to serve at-risk youth or trafficked youth from falling into trafficking.

In 2023, Maryland passed the Safe Harbor Act, which recognizes that children who have engaged in commercial sex are victims, not offenders. This was a major shift in the approach in Maryland. It decriminalized and protected children from being convicted of prostitution and related offenses.

Do you believe the widespread publicity over the Epstein Files has boosted public awareness about human trafficking?

In some ways. But some of that that’s involved isn’t trafficking. Other actions involve trafficking. But there are so many other manifestations of trafficking. I hope we can broaden the understanding of trafficking.