Human trafficking is a modern-day form of slavery. Victims of human trafficking are subjected to force, fraud, or coercion, for the purpose of sexual exploitation or forced labor. Victims are young children, teenagers, men and women.
After drug dealing, human trafficking is tied with the illegal arms industry as the second largest criminal industry in the world today, and it is the fastest growing.
The Trafficking Victims Protection Act of 2000 (TVPA) defines “Severe Forms of Trafficking in Persons” as:
- Sex Trafficking: the recruitment, harboring, transportation, provision, or obtaining of a person for the purpose of a commercial sex act , in which a commercial sex act is induced by force, fraud, or coercion, or in which the person forced to perform such an act is under the age of 18 years; or
- Labor Trafficking:
the recruitment, harboring, transportation, provision, or
obtaining of a person for labor or services, through the use of
force, fraud or coercion for the purpose of subjection to
involuntary servitude, peonage, debt bondage or slavery.
Trafficking Victims
(about 100 per hour)
Approximately 600,000 to 800,000 victims annually are trafficked
across international borders worldwide, and between 14,500 and
17,500 of those victims are trafficked into the U.S., according to
the U.S. Department of State. These estimates include women, men
and children. Victims are generally trafficked into the U.S. from
Asia, Central and South America, and Eastern Europe. Many victims
trafficked into the United States do not speak and understand
English and are therefore isolated and unable to communicate with
service providers, law enforcement and others who might be able to
help them.
How Victims Are
Trafficked
Many victims of trafficking are exploited for purposes of
commercial sex, including prostitution, stripping, pornography and
live-sex shows. However, trafficking also takes place as labor
exploitation, such as domestic servitude, sweatshop factories, or
migrant agricultural work. Traffickers use force, fraud and
coercion to compel women, men and children to engage in these
activities.
Force involves the use of rape, beatings and confinement to control victims. Forceful violence is used especially during the early stages of victimization, known as the ‘seasoning process’, which is used to break victim’s resistance to make them easier to control.
Fraud often involves false offers that induce people into trafficking situations. For example, women and children will reply to advertisements promising jobs as waitresses, maids and dancers in other countries and are then trafficked for purposes of prostitution once they arrive at their destinations.
Coercion involves threats of serious harm to, or physical restraint of, any person; any scheme, plan or pattern intended to cause a person to believe that failure to perform an act would result in serious harm to or physical restraint against any person; or the abuse or threatened abuse of the legal process.
Victims of trafficking are often subjected to debt-bondage, usually in the context of paying off transportation fees into the destination countries. Traffickers often threaten victims with injury or death, or the safety of the victims’ family back home. Traffickers commonly take away the victims’ travel documents and isolate them to make escape more difficult.
Victims do not realize that their debts are often legally unenforceable and, in any event, that it is illegal for traffickers to dictate how they have to pay off their debts. In many cases, the victims are trapped into a cycle of debt because they have to pay for all living expenses in addition to the initial transportation expenses. Fines for not meeting daily quotas of service or “bad” behavior are also used by some trafficking operations to increase debt. Most trafficked victims rarely see the money they are supposedly earning and may not even know the specific amount of their debt. Even if the victims sense that debt-bondage is unjust, it is difficult for them to find help because of language, social, and physical barriers that keep them from obtaining assistance.
Trafficking vs. Smuggling
Trafficking is not smuggling. There are several important
differences between trafficking and smuggling:
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Help for Victims of Trafficking
Prior to the enactment of the TVPA in October 2000,
no comprehensive Federal law existed to protect victims of
trafficking or to prosecute their traffickers. The TVPA is
intended to prevent human trafficking overseas, to increase
prosecution of human traffickers in the United States, and to
protect victims and provide Federal and state assistance to
certain victims so that they can rebuild their lives in the United
States. Victims of human trafficking who are not U.S. citizens are
eligible for a special visa and can receive benefits and services
through the TVPA to the same extent as refugees. Victims of
trafficking who are U.S. citizens may already be eligible for many
benefits due to their citizenship.
If you think you have come in
contact with a victim of human trafficking, call the
Trafficking Information and Referral Hotline at 1.888.3737.888.
This hotline will help you determine if you have encountered
victims of human trafficking, will identify local resources
available in your community to help victims, and will help you
coordinate with local social service organizations to help protect
and serve victims so they can begin the process of restoring their
lives. For more information on human trafficking visit
www.acf.hhs.gov/trafficking.
Trafficking Information and
Referral Hotline at 1.888.3737.888
