CANTON — St. Lawrence County recognized January as Human Trafficking Awareness Month.

It’s an issue that has been discussed at recent St. Lawrence County meetings where at least two women spoke about situations involving their daughters who had been victims of trafficking.

Legislators did not discuss specifics at the Operations Committee when they passed the resolution, which was brought forward by Committee Chair Rita Curran, R-Massena.

The resolution says “human trafficking is a form of abuse in which force, fraud, or coercion is used to control victims for the purpose of commercial, sexual or labor exploitation, affecting individuals of all genders, ages and backgrounds.”

The resolution says that human trafficking is the fastest growing criminal industry in the world and the impact of trafficking is wide-ranged.

In 2020 109,216 victims of human trafficking were identified worldwide.

Legislators voted unanimously to recognize the issue.

“All residents are encouraged to actively participated in efforts to both raise awareness of, and to end, all forms of human tracking in our communities, in the State of New York, and in the United States,” the resolution says,