Almost 40 children who had been missing were found by authorities in Georgia as part of a two-week mission that they dubbed as "Operation Not Forgotten", the U.S Marshals Service announced on August 27.
Many of the children rescued were at risk for child sex trafficking, exploitation and abuse, the law enforcement agency stated.
Operation Not Forgotten
The authorities rescued 26 children and 13 other children were located in the mission. The mission also involved the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children or NCMEC, the Office of the Georgia Attorney General, the Georgia Bureau of Investigation and other state and local agencies. The children rescued from the mission ranged from 3 years old to 17 years old.
The whole operation has led to the arrest of nine suspects who were charged for parental kidnapping, sex trafficking, registered sex offender violations and other related crimes.
Darby Kirby, chief of the Marshals Service Missing Child Unit, said in a statement that when they track down fugitives, they feel good knowing that they are putting the bad guy behind bars. He added that the sense of accomplishment is nothing compared to finding a missing child.
Kirby also said that it is difficult to put into words what they feel when they rescue a missing child, adding that the operation has impacted every single one of them. They are working to protect the children and get them the help that they need.
The children were found in 20 counties around metro Atlanta area, including Fulton, Clayton, Gwinnett and Forsyth counties, according to ABC affiliate WSB.
In a press conference on August 27, Donald Washington, the director of the United States Marshals Service, said that a similar operation in Cleveland has recovered 15 children and led to the arrest of two people.
Another operation called "Operation Summer Rescue" that is set to find missing children began in New Orleans.
Washington said that rescuing children is the most meaningful work that law enforcement does. He added that the children are not for sale and that they are not ever forgotten.
Cases of missing children piling up
More than 421,000 missing child reports that were sent to the FBI in 2019, according to the NCMEC. Washington stated that 91% of those are considered endangered runaways and that 1 in 6 or about 60,000 are likely to become a victim of sex trafficking.
The governor of Georgia, Brian Kemp, praised the operation in a tweet, saying that the state will continue to work around the clock to bring an end to human trafficking and to make sure that the perpetrators of the evil industry know that they have no place in the state.
Georgia Attorney General Chris Carr said that his office has helped place the children in rehabilitation centres.
Carr said at a press conference that their goal is to save as many children as they can and to expose sex trafficking rings in the state. Carr stated that "sex trafficking can be in many ways a hidden crime, one that lives in the shadows."
