New Bedford Senator Pushing for Human Trafficking Awareness Training for Hotel and Motel Workers

BOSTON (WBSM) — Senator Mark Montigny of New Bedford is pushing legislation on Beacon Hill that would require hotel and motel workers and innkeepers in Massachusetts to undergo human trafficking awareness training in order to recognize the signs of it.

In addition, the bill – S1729, An Act requiring human trafficking recognition training for certain hospitality workers – would also require an awareness notice with the national human trafficking hotline to be displayed in lobbies and public restrooms of those lodging facilities.

It is Montigny’s latest effort to combat human trafficking. He filed the first comprehensive bill in the country criminalizing it, which was signed into law in 2011.

Montigny later championed legislation that regulated the bodyworks spas where trafficking had flourished, and amended the criminal justice reform bill that allowed victims of human trafficking to vacate criminal convictions received because of conduct directly related to them being trafficked.

Get our free mobile app

“Human trafficking remains a vicious crime and modern-day version of slavery that exists in almost every community across the Commonwealth and the United States,” Montigny said.

He noted that hotels and motels are being used as emergency shelter sites are also being “exploited by traffickers.”

“This is not simply some awful problem occurring in some far away land. Many victims are vulnerable women or children from our own communities, and hotels and motels are often exploited by traffickers to perpetuate this heinous crime, including in our emergency family shelter sites,” he said. “We must break through the inertia on Beacon Hill and mandate training for hospitality workers who can play a lifesaving role in combating trafficking.”