If someone told you that slavery still exists, would you believe them?
According to End It Movement, “There are more people trapped in slavery today than ever before in human history…” Today, there are 40.3 billion people trapped in slavery by means of the 150 billion dollar a year industry… human trafficking.
What is Human Trafficking?
According to the the U.S. Department of Justice, Human Trafficking is defined as, “a crime that involves compelling or coercing a person to provide labor or services, or to engage in commercial sex acts. The coercion can be subtle or overt, physical, or psychological. Exploitation of a minor for commercial sex is human trafficking, regardless of whether any form of force, fraud, or coercion was used.”
Human trafficking is a devastating and, as horrific as it is to say, “business” that affects millions of people across the globe.
According to the International Labour Organization, 49.6 million people were living in modern slavery in 2021. Women and girls account for 4.9 million of those in commercial sexual exploitation and 6 million of those in forced labour. Additionally, 12% of all those forced in labour are children. More than half of these children are in commercial sexual exploitation.
These numbers are deeply concerning and that’s why we need to take every opportunity to enlighten the world about human trafficking awareness.
Methods of Recruitment
According to A21, these men, women, and children all get trafficked by the vicious cycle of three different parts. First, vulnerability turns to exploitation and then sometimes into re-victimization. (a21)
There are warning signs that we can all look out for to help prevent the vicious cycle of human trafficking and help raise human trafficking awareness.
The Warning Signs:
Listed below are warning signs that may seem normal, but could actually be signs linked to human trafficking. Here is a list of 14 human trafficking signs provided by A21.
- Being controlled
- Little money
- Acting afraid, sad, and compliant
- No id or legal documents
- Drug abuse
- Absence of personal items
- False/different job from their applied job
- Not good with the language of where they are
- Not in good health
- Signs of being abused
- Trust issues
- Dependence on someone
- Feels like they are trapped in their situation
These signs are so important to know to not only look our for ourselves and others, but to help raise human trafficking awareness.
How to Help End Human Trafficking
Do you want to help people enslaved in a human trafficking situation? There are many different organizations that will inform you how you can help by providing specific links and examples to raise human trafficking awareness.
Organizations such as:
- End It Movement https://enditmovement.com/take-action/
- A21 https://www.a21.org/content/human-trafficking/gqe0rc
- IJM https://www.ijm.org/get-involved
- Operation Underground Railroad https://www.ourrescue.org
- The Exodus Road https://theexodusroad.com
- Not For Sale https://www.notforsalecampaign.org
- FRDM https://www.frdm.co/why-frdm
- Free The Slaves https://freetheslaves.net
- Hope For Justice https://hopeforjustice.org
- Love146 https://love146.org
Also, you can call a human trafficking hotline if you or anyone else is in this situation. You can call 1-888-373-7888 or text BeFree (233733)
Men, women, and children are trapped in modern-day slavery all around the globe and we must do our part to protect them. And protecting them doesn’t always look like policing the streets.
Protecting them can be raising human trafficking awareness via social media, raising money to support the organizations who are helping to free the slaves, looking out for the warning signs, and bombarding heaven with our prayers.
Prayer Points
- Safety and protection for those enslaved and those rescuing those enslaved
- Freedom for those enslaved
- Peace over the victim’s families
- Deliverance and justice for pimps and traffickers
- We must be in this together to stop human trafficking and end the fight together.
FAQ
According to Human Trafficking Hotline, Human traffickers employ tactics such as physical and emotional abuse and threats, isolation from friends and family and economic abuse.
According to the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services, human traffickers target young children, teenagers, men and women. These victims can be U.S. citizens, Lawful Permanent Residents or foreign nationals. They can be found in urban, suburban, and rural areas. Typically, these victims are “easy to exploit.”
According to Covenant Rescue Group, a few common cities for human trafficking are Washington D.C., Atlanta, GA, Orlando, FL, Las Vegas, NV, Sacramento, Ca.
According to High Speed Training, human traffickers provide false promises of lucrative jobs, stability, education, income or romance to attract people.
