Atlanta, Georgia: A Major Human Trafficking Hub for More Than Two Decades

There are many major cities within the United States that signal alarmingly high rates of human trafficking, but the city of Atlanta, Georgia in has been designated as a major trafficking hub for more than twenty years now. Atlanta is a major transportation hub for trafficking young girls from Mexico and is one of the top three U.S. cities with the highest levels of child sex trafficking. Atlanta has had the nation’s largest sex trade between 2003 and 2007 – generating $290 million in 2007 alone – as well as in 2018. As a major city already struggling to accommodate a massive population boom over recent years, Atlanta has continued to struggle to address the major contributing factors of this large trafficking epicenter as well. A total of 876 signals were received by the National Human Trafficking Hotline from Georgia in 2024 – roughly 2.7 percent of the 32,309 national calls in 2024. These “signals,” or contacts to the Hotline, come from several sources, including calls, texts, emails, online reporting, and web chats.

There are a variety of factors that contribute to certain areas of the country being more appealing to traffickers. Atlanta specifically has three factors driving a high rate of human trafficking: a central geographical location to major travel infrastructure, interconnected gang involvement, and multiple vulnerable populations.

Atlanta’s exceedingly high human trafficking rates is largely impacted by its geographical location and infrastructure. The city’s access to major interstate highways makes it not only a central point for transportation, but it also makes it easier for traffickers to move and transport victims. Many of these operations take place at local hotels, truck stops, and street corners, with a rough average of 200-300 juvenile girls being exploited each month within Atlanta. Additionally, the city is home to the Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport, one of the busiest airports in the world. This airport serves as a major entry and exit point for human traffickers; the busy hub also enables traffickers and their victims to move through quickly and undetected.

Interconnected gang activity also plays a significant role in human trafficking issues in Atlanta. The majority of gangs in Atlanta are involved in organized crime and human trafficking because it is a highly profitable revenue stream, especially when it involves minor girls. Therefore, these human trafficking efforts are largely driven by local and national criminal organizations.

The exploitation of vulnerable populations is also a prominent factor related to the trafficking issues of both minors and adults in Atlanta. Traffickers oftentimes look to form a bond and level of trust with their victims. This is especially true in cases involving child victims or people in more vulnerable positions, such as those who are unhoused, recently released from incarceration, addicted to drugs, or working in the sex industry. Individuals with certain financial, familial, or personal vulnerabilities are often approached and offered aid or assistance, thereby forming a connection with the trafficker. This makes it much more difficult for victims to identify that they are being manipulated or groomed before it is too late. Homelessness and trafficking often appear hand in hand, most commonly in children ages 14 to 25, with more than half of the homeless youth in metro Atlanta reporting having experienced human trafficking. Additionally, there are over 20 strip clubs in Atlanta that serve as a gateway to sex trafficking. Traffickers frequent these strip clubs to operate where inhibitions are already lowered. They then attempt to coerce or convince individuals that they have an opportunity to make even more money by suggesting further sex work beyond the strip club.

In response to these driving factors and this longstanding notion of Atlanta as a large trafficking hub, many state and city officials have worked to combat this epidemic in recent years. The Georgia Statewide Human Trafficking Task Force and the Georgia Bureau of Investigation’s Human Exploitation and Trafficking Unit, or “HEAT Unit,” are both initiatives that work to prevent and prosecute trafficking cases. At the 2019 Super Bowl LIII in Atlanta, 169 people were arrested by local officials as part of a larger FBI-led human trafficking operation. Additionally, in October 2024, Fulton County formed a new task force that is working to increase human trafficking prosecutions. There are also multiple organizations structured against human trafficking and the fight for personal freedom located within Atlanta, such as Out of Darkness, BeLoved Atlanta, End It, and Not For Sale. These organizations work to protect individuals from modern day slavery and human trafficking by providing residential housing, job-training, and various other life skills and safety to victims in need.

Atlanta has existed as a major trafficking hub since at least 2003 and continues to serve as a persistent problem throughout the country. The city of Atlanta’s geographical location as a major transportation hub, its substantial gang activity, and large population of vulnerable persons has all led to this growing problem. While local and state officials in Georgia have implemented multiple task forces in recent years aimed at tackling these specific issues, the weight of these factors have continued to make this fight a steep uphill battle. In order to further combat human trafficking issues in Atlanta, there should be a deeper utilization of the five Ps of trafficking: prevention, protection, prosecution, partnership, and policy. By analyzing what factors have created this trafficking hotspot in Atlanta, practitioners and law enforcement officials can better tailor their reform efforts and create targeted interventions to help victims of sexual exploitation. Legal practitioners can also use this information to develop new laws aimed at protecting these vulnerable communities and punishing human trafficking offenders more harshly as a means of slowing down this activity. Furthermore, through the development of more trauma-informed care and improved legal frameworks, including severe sanctions for traffickers and further protections for victims, this massive epidemic can slowly begin to be dismantled.