David Okech, associate professor, University of Georgia School of Social Work and member of a section of the Georgia Governor’s Human Trafficking Task Force. (Courtesy photo)
A University of Georgia professor working on efforts to end human trafficking said Tuesday that forced labor may at least as big an industry as sexual servitude.
David Okech, an associate professor in the University of Georgia School of Social Work, is a member of a section of the Georgia Governor’s Human Trafficking Task Force that focuses on the plight of foreign-born adult victims of labor trafficking. Okech also leads the African Programming and Research Initiative to End Slavery, which is funded by the U.S. State Department’s Office to Combat and Monitor Trafficking in Persons. The international project is collecting data on child trafficking in parts of West Africa to aid intervention efforts and reintegration programs for survivors.
