Call federal law enforcement directly to report suspected human trafficking activity and get help: U.S. Department of Homeland Security at 1-866-347-2423 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, every day of the year, or submit a tip online at www.ice.gov/tips .
Traffickers look for individuals who may feel hopeless or are struggling with dependency. They often target people with financial instability or those in poverty. Traffickers prey on a person's desperation, promising them independence and a way out.
In the first stage, the victims are recruited; in the second, they are transported; and in the third, they are exploited. At the recruitment stage, criminals use many methods to force or trick people into being trafficked.
Many sex traffickers lure victims by providing basic survival needs. They systematically provide distorted versions of higher needs to manipulate victims. Using threats, force and coercion, traffickers exploit the fact that, for many victims, “the life” may be their first experience of 'family' and belonging.
Who Is a Human Trafficking Victim? Human trafficking is a form of modern-day slavery in which victims are subjected to force, fraud or coercion for the purpose of commercial sex, debt bondage, or involuntary labor. Victims of human trafficking can be young children, teenagers, men and women.
Anyone can experience trafficking in any community, just as anyone can be the victim of any kind of crime. While it can happen to anyone, evidence suggests that people of color and LGBTQ+ people are more likely to experience trafficking than other demographic groups.
Traffickers employ a variety of control tactics, the most common include physical and emotional abuse and threats, isolation from friends and family, and economic abuse. They make promises aimed at addressing the needs of their target in order to impose control.
Locations. Victims can be found in legal and illegal labor industries, including child care, elder care, the drug trade, massage parlors, nail and hair salons, restaurants, hotels, factories, and farms. In some cases, victims are hidden behind doors in domestic servitude in a home.
Sex Trafficking. Sex trafficking is the most prevalent form of human trafficking in the United States (Gorman & Hatkevich, 2016).
Labor trafficking most often begins with a simple job offer. It becomes trafficking when pay or working conditions are abusive and the worker cannot quit or complain because the boss is threatening them or exploiting their desperate economic circumstances.
Children account for half of the victims of human trafficking. In fact, the average age that a young person becomes involved in sex trafficking is 12 years old.
Join Blue Campaign in raising awareness of human trafficking through social media this #WearBlueDay.
What Are the Three Types of Human Trafficking? While many forms exist, the three most common types of human trafficking include sex trafficking, forced labor, and debt bondage.
Contact the National Human Trafficking Hotline if you have any concerns about a potential trafficking situation. Call 1-888-373-7888, text HELP to BEFREE (233733), or email [email protected].
Who Are Human Traffickers? A universal human trafficker profile does not exist. Under both international and United States (US) law, traffickers can be corporations or other legal entities, or they can be private persons.
Traffickers use violence, manipulation, or false promises of well-paying jobs or romantic relationships to exploit victims. Victims are forced to work as prostitutes or to take jobs as migrant, domestic, restaurant, or factory workers with little or no pay.
With an estimated 27.6 million victims worldwide at any given time, human traffickers prey on people of all ages, backgrounds, and nationalities, exploiting them for their own profit.
CHILDREN;139 EASY TO TARGET
Globally, one in every three victims detected is a child.
India is at the top of the list with 14 million victims, China comes in second with 3.2 million victims, and Pakistan comes in at third with 2.1 million victims. Cambodia is also a transit, source, and a destination country for trafficking. 36% of trafficked victims in Asia are children, while 64% are adults.
As with domestic violence victims, if you think a patient is a victim of trafficking, you do not want to begin by asking directly if the person has been beaten or held against his/her will.
Examples of human trafficking and slavery
Adults and children can be trafficked or enslaved and forced to sell their bodies for sex. People are also trafficked or enslaved for labour exploitation, for example: to work on a farm or factory. to work in a house as a servant, maid or nanny.
Victim is not allowed to speak to others alone/their answers seem scripted and rehearsed. Employer is holding the victim's passport/IDs. Victim shows signs of physical abuse, has submissive and fearful facial expressions. Victim is clearly underpaid/unpaid.
In the United States, Black, Native American, Asian American and Pacific Islander youth are especially vulnerable to trafficking due to the particular histories of oppression and exploitation, including the sexualization, objectification, and fetishization of these girls.