Person seems overly fearful, submissive, tense, or paranoid. Person is deferring to another person before giving information. Person has physical injuries or branding such as name tattoos on face or chest, tattoos about money and sex, or pimp phrases. Clothing is inappropriately sexual or inappropriate for weather.
Showing signs of physical injuries and abuse. Avoiding eye contact, social interaction, and authority figures/law enforcement. Seeming to adhere to scripted or rehearsed responses in social interaction. Lacking official identification documents.
Often, false promises will be made to the victims about money, new clothes, work or education opportunities, financial aid for their family, etc. Many traffickers prey on victims who are looking for the promise of a better life, a job opportunity or a romantic relationship.
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.
Human traffickers use a variety of methods to exploit people, including false job advertisements, lies about opportunities and abduction. We all have a responsibility to be aware of such methods and to act if we believe somebody is at risk of, or is, being trafficked.
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.
There is no single profile of a trafficking victim. Victims of human trafficking can be anyone—regardless of race, color, national origin, disability, religion, age, gender, sexual orientation, gender identity, socioeconomic status, education level, or citizenship status.
Sexual exploitation and forced labour
The most common form of human trafficking detected by national authorities is trafficking for the purpose of sexual exploitation.
Today, is National Human Trafficking Awareness Day. Join us in wearing blue, the international color of #HumanTrafficking awareness. Post your photos using #WearBlueDay to help raise awareness of this terrible crime and help #EndTrafficking. Learn more: dhs.gov/blue-campaign/…
Join Blue Campaign in raising awareness of human trafficking through social media this #WearBlueDay.
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.
Instead, human trafficking is fueled by a demand for cheap labor, services, and for commercial sex. Human traffickers are those who employ force, fraud, or coercion to victimize others in their desire to profit from the existing demand.
Contact the National Human Trafficking Hotline 24-hour hotline at 1-888-3737-888 to obtain local referrals for shelter or other social services and support. The Hotline can also connect you with specialized law enforcement referrals. However, if you are ever in immediate danger, contact 9-1-1 first.
Suspect actions of traffickers include recruitment, harboring, transporting, providing, obtaining (and for sex trafficking patronizing or soliciting prostitution).
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.
Men, women and children of all ages and from all backgrounds can become victims of this crime, which occurs in every region of the world. The traffickers often use violence or fraudulent employment agencies and fake promises of education and job opportunities to trick and coerce their victims.
Be careful about posting too much personal information online and do not trust "friendly" strangers on social media that know too much about you or say just the right thing. Stay vigilant and don't "look" like easy prey. Traffickers go after those they perceive as vulnerable and meek.
When a victim perceives a threat to their physical and psychological survival at the hands of their trafficker, trauma bonding may occur. Traffickers may isolate and threaten victims, induce exhaustion, and interfere with their believed or real ability to escape.
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.