10 Things YOU Should Know About Human Trafficking!

This list is from an organization called Not For Sale, an organization focused on the abolition of human trafficking. They have locations globally, including programs in Peru. Dick Wexler, retired father of the co-founder of NFS, came and spoke for a couple hours last week in the DTS I'm staffing. As some of you know, working towards the abolition of human trafficking is my biggest passion and what I plan to do someday in the future. 

This is NFS's list of things they feel North Americans should know about human trafficking. Please note that these are not necessarily the top 10 things I would want someone to know, but I liked the list enough to paraphrase and share with all of you :)

**I starred things when I added my own clarification or examples**

Top 10 Things To Know About Modern-Day Slavery

10. Human Trafficking:
the recruitment, transportation, transfer, harboring, enticement, provision, obtaining or receipt of any person by any means for the purpose of facilitation of sexual or economic exploitation.

-definition by the Minnesota Human Trafficking Task Force

9. Traffickers use force, fraud, and/or coercion to control victims.

-Ways of force: beatings, confinement, rape (*ie. Beating victim until the victim agrees to do what they ask*)

-Deception/fraud: false offers of employment, marriage, education, etc.

-Coercion: threats to victim or victims’ family, debt bondange, manipulation *(A trafficker can say: “If you escape, I’ll replace you with your sister/best friend/daughter.” A trafficker doesn’t care about your life in particular, they just need a body to use.)

8. The word 'trafficking' is a misnomer!

A victim does not have to be moved to another location for the crime to be considered "trafficking in persons". *If the situation qualifies as modern-day slavery or slave-like conditions, you could be trafficked out of your own home.

7. TIP (Trafficking In Persons) is the fastest growing criminal business activity.

-Over 30 million victims worldwide

-TIP generates about $32 billion per year

-*TIP is estimated to pass up drug trafficking by 2020 as the world’s biggest criminal money-making industry – you can sell drugs once, but humans you can sell over and over again.

-so many more facts at http://love146.org/slavery. Click on the bottom right side of the picture. Love146 is one of my favorite organizations. Or http://www.stopthetraffik.org/uk/page/the-scale-of-human-trafficking

6. Traffickers prey on the powerless:

- 1/2 of the people trafficked are children

- 80% are female

- many live in extreme poverty

- persons trafficked in the USA are usually runaways, homeless, mentally ill, handicapped, immigrants, or refugees.

5. 2 major categories of TIP

Sex Trafficking  (up to 26 different ways such as...)

·                     phone sex

·                     live sex shows and peep shows

·                     stripping

·                     prostitution

·                     pornography

Labor Trafficking

·                     agricultural work

·                     criminal activity

·                     restaurant work

·                     construction

·                     domestic servitude

·                     hotels

·                     mines

·                     street workers (kids selling gum, beggars, etc.)

*These are just some examples, there are plenty more.

4. Average age that girls start to be prostituted in the US *as well as globally* is 13.

3. Countries of origin for trafficked (over borders) victims (as in, trafficked from these countries to other locations):

very high in Asia, India, Eastern Europe. There are lower numbers of trafficked victims coming out of the Americas.

-people are most often (once trafficked) brought to: Europe, the US, some places in southern Asia.

2. The FBI has identified the Twin Cities (Minnesota) as one of the nation’s 13 largest centers for child prostitution.

1. EVERYONE can do something to fight trafficking!

---> pray, become informed, raise awareness, shop wisely, support organizations financially, and come up with your own ideas!

*More ideas/info at websites such as:

notforsalecampaign.org

love146.org

mngirlsnotforsale.org

free2work.org

productsofslavery.org

stopthetraffik.org

callandresponse.com

ijm.org

or just google modern-day slavery or human trafficking!

Hopefully this was helpful to some or all of you. I know I learned new things when I heard all of this and I've been researching this stuff for years, so be informed and share with everyone you can! :)