DOVER, Del. (A) - The state Senate has unanimously approved a bill that toughens penalties for criminals engaged in human trafficking and provides greater protections for victims.
Following Tuesday's Senate passage, the bill now goes to the state House.
The bill, like similar legislation being considered in several other states, is aimed at penalizing traffickers who force people, mostly women and children, into labor or sexual servitude, while offering help for victims.
The legislation also makes it a felony to patronize a person for commercial sex with the knowledge that he or she is a victim of sexual servitude.
While cracking down on traffickers and their customers, the bill also allows victims to sue traffickers and to seek pardons and dismissal of convictions for sex crimes that result from being a trafficking victim.
