Human Trafficking

UN definition of human trafficking.
Human trafficking is the recruitment, transportation, harboring, or receipt of people for the purposes of slavery, forced labor (including bonded labor or debt bondage) and servitude. The total annual revenue for trafficking in persons is estimated to be between $5 billion and $9 billion. The Council of Europe states that “[human trafficking has reached epidemic proportions over the past decade, with a global annual market of about $42.5 billion.” Trafficking victims typically are recruited using coercion, deception and fraud.

Human trafficking involves buying, selling, and smuggling people (often women and children) and forcing them into what amounts to modern-day slavery.

How big is the problem? Very big. According to the State Department, up to two million people are trafficked worldwide every year, with an estimated 15,000 to 18,000 in the U.S., causing untold suffering.

How are victims “recruited”? Sometimes by force, but usually by fraud. Victims are lured away from family and friends by the promise of a better life, often in another country. For traffickers, there’s no shortage of victims—people eager for higher-paying jobs and other opportunities in distant cities and nations.

What kinds of work are victims forced to do? Both legal and illegal. Everything from prostitution to exotic dancing…from street peddling to housekeeping…from child care to construction and landscaping. Some victims are forced to work in restaurants and factories and are drawn into servile marriages and various criminal activities.

How are victims controlled? Many different ways: physically, through beatings, burnings, rapes, and starvation; emotionally, through isolation, psychological abuse, drug dependency, and threats against family members in home countries; and financially, through debt bondage and threat of deportation.

Escape is difficult because victims are often “invisible”—in the U.S., for example, victims typically don’t speak English; they’re afraid to approach authorities because they don’t want to be deported; and they have no idea where they are or how to get help.