NBC Bay Area recently spoke with Vicki Zito, the mother of a California human trafficking victim, about her daughter’s story and her support for the California Against Slavery ballot initiative to strengthen human trafficking laws and increase trafficking victims’ rights.

Originally aired: KNTV NBC Bay Area 3/22/10 11pm News

Vicki Zito’s daughter became a victim of human trafficking in Northern California when a trafficker abducted her from the Sacramento-area to the Bay Area and sold her on the Craigslist “erotic services” Web site. The 17-year-old girl was repeatedly violated in the eight days she was missing in March 2008. FBI agents and police found the girl being held by her trafficker in a Motel 6 in Fremont, Calif.

“No child is safe from domestic human trafficking,” said Zito, a nurse and mother of four in El Dorado Hills, Calif.

Zito is working with volunteers across California to collect the necessary signatures to place an initiative on the statewide ballot that would deter traffickers with stiffer criminal penalties and aid district attorneys in prosecuting human trafficking offenses.