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Five Quick Facts About Human Trafficking

It is the fastest growing illegal industry in the world and gaining momentum.
An estimated 27 million people are enslaved today.
It is the world’s 3rd largest illegal industry behind guns and drugs.
The average cost of a slave today is $90 – $300. The average cost of a slave during transatlantic slavery was $40,000.
You personally can help end this injustice.

Please explore the links below to learn more about modern day human trafficking and what you can do today to help end injustice in our world.

Take a stand! Demand that retailers sell only fair-trade, slave-free products

The International Labor Organization has recently stated that for every one person around the world forced into the sex trade, nine people are forced to work without pay. Facts are, products we use every day are tainted by slave labor. Meaning, the supply chain of many products have more than likely been produced by a human being against their will and without a wage – the soccer balls we kick, the bananas we peel, the cell phones we talk on, the chocolate we devour, the coffee we drink, the clothes we wear – so we can buy and consume these products cheap.

Learn more about Fair Trade Products at www.transfairusa.org

Do You Own Stuff Made By Slaves?
97% of human beings care about human beings, which is why it may come as a surprise to many people that slavery still exists. This video is courtesy of www.slavefree.com

Celebrities & Artists Unite Against Human Trafficking
Slavery and human trafficking is the fastest growing crime on the planet. Video courtesy of www.callandresponse.com

Hot Line for Human Trafficking 1-888-373-7888
Bradley Myles of the Polaris Project discusses the growing issue of human trafficking in the United States. Is trafficking occurring in your neighborhood? Call 1-888-373-7888

Did you know that the U.S. government and president Barack Obama have an official position against human trafficking?

Presidential Proclamation – dated January 4, 2010

“The United States was founded on the principle that all people are born with an unalienable right to freedom — an ideal that has driven the engine of American progress throughout our history. As a Nation, we have known moments of great darkness and greater light; and dim years of chattel slavery illuminated and brought to an end by President Lincoln’s actions and a painful Civil War. Yet even today, the darkness and inhumanity of enslavement exists. Millions of people worldwide are held in compelled service, as well as thousands within the United States. During National Slavery and Human Trafficking Prevention Month, we acknowledge that forms of slavery still exist in the modern era, and we recommit ourselves to stopping the human traffickers who ply this horrific trade.”

“Fighting modern slavery and human trafficking is a shared responsibility. I urge all Americans to educate themselves about all forms of modern slavery and the signs and consequences of human trafficking. Together, we can and must end this most serious, ongoing criminal civil rights violation.”

President, Barack Obama

U.S. DEPARTMENT OF STATE’S DEFINITION OF HUMAN TRAFFICKING

WHAT IS TRAFFICKING IN PERSONS?

Over the past 15 years, “trafficking in persons” or “human trafficking” have been used as umbrella terms for activities involved when one person obtains or holds another person in compelled service. The TVPA describes this compelled service using a number of different terms: involuntary servitude, slavery, debt bondage, and forced labor.

Under the TVPA, a person may be a trafficking victim regardless of whether they once consented, participated in a crime as a direct result of being trafficked, were transported into the exploitative situation, or were simply born into a state of servitude. At the heart of this phenomenon are the myriad forms of enslavement – not the activities involved in international transportation.

Major forms of human trafficking include:

Forced LaborRecent studies show the majority of human trafficking in the world takes the form of forced labor. The ILO estimates that for every trafficking victim subjected to forced prostitution, nine people are forced to work. Also known as involuntary servitude, forced labor may result when unscrupulous employers exploit workers made more vulnerable by high rates of unemployment, poverty, crime, discrimination, corruption, political conflict, or cultural acceptance of the practice. Immigrants are particularly vulnerable, but individuals also may be forced into labor in their own countries. Female victims of forced or bonded labor, especially women and girls in domestic servitude, are often sexually exploited as well.

Sex TraffickingSex trafficking comprises a smaller but still significant portion of overall human trafficking. When an adult is coerced, forced, or deceived into prostitution – or maintained in prostitution through coercion – that person is a victim of trafficking. All of those involved in recruiting, transporting, harboring, receiving, or obtaining the person for that purpose have committed a trafficking crime. Sex trafficking can also occur within debt bondage, as women and girls are forced to continue in prostitution through the use of unlawful “debt” purportedly incurred through their transportation, recruitment, or even their crude “sale” – which exploiters insist they must pay off before they can be free. It is critical to understand that a person’s initial consent to participate in prostitution is not legally determinative: if they are thereafter held in service through psychological manipulation or physical force, they are trafficking victims and should receive the benefits outlined in the Palermo Protocol and applicable domestic laws.

Bonded LaborOne form of force or coercion is the use of a bond, or debt. Often referred to as “bonded labor” or “debt bondage,” the practice has long been prohibited under U.S. law by its Spanish name – peonage – and the Palermo Protocol requires its criminalization as a form of trafficking in persons. Workers around the world fall victim to debt bondage when traffickers or recruiters unlawfully exploit an initial debt the worker assumed as part of the terms of employment. Workers may also inherit debt in more traditional systems of bonded labor. In South Asia, for example, it is estimated that there are millions of trafficking victims working to pay off their ancestors’ debts.

Debt Bondage Among
Migrant LaborersAbuses of contracts and hazardous conditions of employment for migrant laborers do not necessarily constitute human trafficking. However, the attribution of illegal costs and debts on these laborers in the source country, often with the support of labor agencies and employers in the destination country, can contribute to a situation of debt bondage. This is the case even when the worker’s status in the country is tied to the employer as a guest-worker in the context of employment-based temporary work programs.

Involuntary Domestic
ServitudeA unique form of forced labor is the involuntary servitude of domestic workers, whose workplace is informal, connected to their off-duty living quarters, and not often shared with other workers. Such an environment, which often socially isolates domestic workers, is conducive to nonconsensual exploitation since authorities cannot inspect private property as easily as they can inspect formal workplaces. Investigators and service providers report many cases of untreated illnesses and, tragically, widespread sexual abuse, which in some cases may be symptoms of a situation of involuntary servitude.

Forced child LaborMost international organizations and national laws recognize children may legally engage in certain forms of work. There is a growing consensus, however, that the worst forms of child labor should be eradicated. The sale and trafficking of children and their entrapment in bonded and forced labor are among these worst forms of child labor, and these are forms of trafficking. A child can be a victim of human trafficking regardless of the location of that nonconsensual exploitation. Indicators of possible forced labor of a child include situations in which the child appears to be in the custody of a non-family member who has the child perform work that financially benefits someone outside the child’s family and does not offer the child the option of leaving. Anti-trafficking responses should supplement, not replace, traditional actions against child labor, such as remediation and education. However, when children are enslaved, their abusers should not escape criminal punishment by virtue of longstanding administrative responses to child labor practices.

Child SoldiersChild soldiering can be a manifestation of human trafficking where it involves the unlawful recruitment or use of children– through force, fraud, or coercion – as combatants or for labor or sexual exploitation by armed forces. Perpetrators may be government forces, paramilitary organizations, or rebel groups. Many children are forcibly abducted to be used as combatants. Others are made unlawfully to work as porters, cooks, guards, servants, messengers, or spies. Young girls can be forced to marry or have sex with male combatants. Both male and female child soldiers are often sexually abused and are at high risk of contracting sexually transmitted diseases.

Child Sex TraffickingAccording to UNICEF, as many as two million children are subjected to prostitution in the global commercial sex trade. International covenants and protocols obligate criminalization of the commercial sexual exploitation of children. The use of children in the commercial sex trade is prohibited under both U.S. law and the Palermo Protocol as well as by legislation in countries around the world. There can be no exceptions and no cultural or socioeconomic rationalizations preventing the rescue of children from sexual servitude. Sex trafficking has devastating consequences for minors, including long-lasting physical and psychological trauma, disease (including HIV/ AIDS), drug addiction, unwanted pregnancy, malnutrition, social ostracism, and possible death.

Link to original definition source: www.state.gov/g/tip/rls/tiprpt/2010

Note: There are additional links and information on our Resources Pages for those interested in digging deeper.

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