By Bob Katzen

The Senate 39-0, approved an amendment providing $200,000 in funding for the state’s Division of Professional Licensure to investigate human trafficking and sexual exploitation in massage spas and all the other facilities subject to inspection by the division.

“Human trafficking is an atrocious crime that inflicts an incomprehensible level of brutality and suffering upon victims,” said the bill’s sponsor Sen. Mark Montigny (D-New Bedford). “For too long traffickers have seized upon the bodyworks loophole and limited state resources to perpetuate such heinous activity. As long as we have hundreds of spas in Massachusetts with only two inspectors, we are not serious about protecting vulnerable victims.”