The FBI says at least seven child sex trafficking victims have been rescued from Honolulu, reports the Daily Kos.
Two suspects connected to those seven girls have been arrested.
The recovery is part of a larger human trafficking crackdown across the country.
The average age of the 84 children rescued was just over 15 with the youngest being just 11, according to Hawaii News Now.
The issue has come under extreme scrutiny in Hawaii where 64 percent of the sex trafficking victims identify as being Native Hawaiian.
“The unfortunate reality is that the longer the child is missing or unsupervised, the higher the chance that they will be victimized,” said Amanda Leonard of the Missing Child Center of Hawaii to KHON2.
Sen. Mazie Hirano (D-HI) recently urged the FBI to do more to protect these girls.
“As the federal government goes after the sex traffickers and seeks to protect these vulnerable populations, I said to Chris Wray our FBI director, that we need to include Native Hawaiian women and girls in the population that needs to be protected,” said Hirono.
AsAmNews is incorporated in the state of California as Asian American Media, Inc, a non-profit with 501c3 status. Check out our Instagram account. Go to our Twitter feed and Facebook page for more content. Please consider interning, joining our staff, or submitting a story, or making a tax-deductible financial contribution. We are committed to the highest ethical standards in journalism. Please report any typos or errors to info at AsAmNews dot com