Hello everyone! Welcome to 2020! “Everything’s Otay!” has so much in story this year and I can’t wait to share it with you. As I mentioned in my last article, this year I will be discussing about topics that not a lot of people shine light on, and I feel are important subjects to discuss. This month we will start off with the first one.

Human Tracking. Last year there were a few sex trafficking incidents that made it to the media. Today this is what we will be discussing. Plus, its Human Trafficking Awareness Month and January 11th is National Human Trafficking Awareness Day! Let’s wears a blue heart this month. By wearing a blue heart you bring awareness to the millions of men, women, and children that have fallen victim to human trafficking. This month let’s educate ourselves on this subject and I’m extremely happy you chose to learn it here, so lets get started!

What is Human Trafficking?

Human Trafficking involves recruitment, force, transporting, coercion, and fraud. Victims do laborious work or commercial sex work against their will, leaving them in frightening and a lot of the time dangerous situations.

Who can be victims of Human Trafficking?

Doesn’t matter what gender, nationally or age. Men, women, and children get lured into human trafficking every year. Traffickers can be male or female.

How do they lure people into Human Trafficking?

Traffickers use many methods to luring men, women, and children in. Here are a few: Recruitment, a lot of recruitments happen through luring victims into “get rich quick” scandals, romantic relationships, and friendships. Force and coercion, this is involved once the victim is recruited and they’re forced to work against there will. Traffickers make false promises like they’ll receive a certain percentage of the money they make or releasing them once their debt is payed. Fraud, from job ads the trafficker share, they convince their victim that they will be working in a well-paying job. A lot of job ads require the victim to travel abroad (which the trafficker pays for) and once the victim arrives, they discover the job they applied for doesn’t exist or the conditions and job title does not match the description. Not only does this happen abroad but this happens locally.

How do traffickers choose their victims?

They prey on vulnerability. They look for people who are trying to get out of property, unaware of their safety, people who have gone through hardships, natural disasters, emotionally unstable, etc.

Why don’t they reach out for help?

Being a trafficking victim can leave you feeling hopeless. A lot them fear law enforcement, language barrier can be an issue, terrified of their trafficker, and more. That’s why this crime is so hidden.

Other information:

Violence and manipulation are commonly used on human trafficking victims. Sex trafficking gets a lot of recognition but the majority of trafficking happens through laborious work. The number of women that fall into trafficking is 51%, children 28%, men 21%. Male traffickers are 61% and female are 37%. Harboring, a lot of traffickers keep their victims hidden in brothels, factories, homes, etc. Some of them are even in plain sight. In some country prostitution is legal but a lot of sex trafficking is in the form of prostitution and brothels. Some victims are so traumatized and manipulated that they believe they weren’t victims of trafficking.

If you suspect human trafficking taking place or know someone that needs help, please do not take it into your own hands. Leave it to law enforcement and call 911 or the Human Trafficking Hotline to investigate. In the next few weeks we will discuss signs of Human Trafficking and more. Remember January is Human Trafficking Awareness Month and don’t forget to wear your blue hearts! Stay tuned to read more about this topic and how we can help. Thank you for reading!

Human Trafficking Hotline: 1(888)373-7888

SMS: 233733 (text “Help” or “Info”

Links: https://www.dhs.gov/blue-campaign/what-human-trafficking, https://pact.city/5-common-trafficking-recruitment-methods/