Take a second to imagine that you have met a victim of human trafficking. What is this person like?
You likely imagined a woman or a younger female who was trafficked by a bigger man for sex trafficking. However, these are all generalized characteristics. Yes, these situations occur, but this is the stereotype that people rely on when they determine whether or not a situation can be considered trafficking. Let’s delve into why it is pertinent to break this stereotype.
A Look at the Problem of Trafficking
In our previous two articles, Annabelle and I outlined what sex trafficking is, how it happens, and how social media and COVID-19 play a role. In this article, we address potential ways you can help prevent trafficking, support victims, and keep people safe.
It is important to understand that this problem is here and now. According to the Minnesota Human Trafficking Report, 65 percent of labor trafficking victims and 95 percent of sex trafficking victims were trafficked domestically. It is crucial to be aware of what vulnerabilities may attract traffickers because it can help you recognize if a situation is trafficking or if someone is at risk of being trafficked. We outlined many of these vulnerabilities in our first article.
What Should You Do If You Witness Suspicious Activity on Social Media?
In our second article, we wrote about how social media platforms can facilitate interactions between predators and vulnerable individuals. While there are some built-in avenues to report suspicious activity, there are other steps you should take to keep you safe and others. If you witness suspicious activity or there is someone trying to manipulate you or someone you know, do NOT report it to the platform you are using. Homeland Security emphasizes that reporting them to the social media service generally results in the platform deleting the account. The media service is not required to report it to law enforcement, and once the account is erased, the evidence is destroyed. They urge users to inform law enforcement without alerting the media base. Since children and vulnerable teenagers are common targets, this is especially important for parents to know.
What is Labor Trafficking?
While we focused on sex trafficking in the United States in this series, that is not the only type of trafficking. Labor trafficking is extensive and often underrepresented in common trafficking discourse. The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services identifies three different types of labor trafficking: bonded labor, forced labor, and child labor.
If a man is exploited and forced to work long arduous hours doing construction to pay off a loan or a debt, this would be a situation of bonded labor. Oftentimes, the terms of service are unclear in these situations which can create room for exploitation.
If a victim is forced to work a job and the perpetrators threaten them with violence to themselves or harm to their families, punitive consequences, and/or do not allow the victim autonomy, then, this is an example of forced labor. Some common types of forced labor are “domestic servitude; agricultural labor; sweatshop factory labor; janitorial, food service and other service industry labor; and begging.”
Child labor has to do with labor conditions that harm the health both physical and mental of the child. The International Labor Organization approximated that a quarter of a billion children are exploited for the purpose of labor trafficking worldwide.
What Does the Trafficking Victims Protection Act Tell Us?
To take a more in-depth look at the relationship between sex and labor trafficking, it is best to start with the Trafficking Victims Protection Act (TVPA). This bill was passed by the United States government in 2000. The TVPA focuses on three aspects of trafficking: prosecution, protection, and prevention. The TVPA also created the Trafficking in Persons (TIP) report which assesses how other countries are doing with their human trafficking efforts. The 2019 TVPA stated that the Department of Justice had 454 convictions that involved sex trafficking and 21 that involved labor trafficking.
Is this a truly reflective ratio between sex and labor trafficking that occurs both worldwide and nationwide? The answer is NO.
In 2016, the International Labor Organization estimated that 20 million were trafficked for forced labor in either the public or private sector, and comparatively, there were roughly 4.8 million people trapped in sexual exploitation.
So, Why is this Important?
The classic representation of a trafficked person tends to be a weak, young girl or woman who is exploited or taken advantage of by a man or by a gang of organized crime members. However, it is imperative to break this stereotype. While this situation does happen and is often represented in the media, it overshadows the reality.
Trafficking can occur in many different forms and this stereotype can prevent proper identification of trafficking.
Therefore, one way you can help others and yourself is to re-imagine what trafficking might look like. It might be parents who sell their child because they do not have enough money to put food on the table. It might be a boyfriend who pressures or manipulates his girlfriend into doing exploitative sexual acts. A woman can also be an offender. By breaking ties with this heuristic, it will be easier to recognize diverse situations that could be potentially perilous both for you and others.
“Clues” of Trafficking to Look For
It is important to recognize that a trafficker can trap or enslave a victim without a physical boundary. There are countless psychological factors and forms of manipulation that can be equally as hard to escape as a room or building. Even if an individual looks free, they still might be a trafficking victim.
The Department of Health and Human Services has identified “clues” that can signal if an individual might be a trafficking victim. Some psychological/behavioral identifiers are: symptoms of PTSD, sleep or eating disorders, detached emotionally, possible addictions, panic attacks, feelings of guilt, or helplessness. Other factors are also recognized as indicators: substantial debt, often spoken for by another individual, minimal or no documentation, cannot leave their home/work.
If/When a Victim or Potential Victim is Identified, What Should You Do?
There are many resources you can connect with to help report an instance of trafficking. In the U.S., the National Human Trafficking Hotline number is 1 (888) 373-7888 or you can text “HELP” or “INFO” to 233733. The National Human Trafficking website also has a spot to submit an anonymous report. There are slight variations in trafficking laws from one state to the next, so it is important to be familiar with what constitutes trafficking.
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While breaking the stereotypical belief of what trafficking is and being aware of who you interact with both in-person and online are critical preventative measures, this is not an exhaustive list. You can also read reports on human trafficking, watch documentaries that tell survivors’ stories, volunteer with human trafficking hotlines, and be aware that these things are occurring around you. There is always more to learn about this violation of human rights and more we can do to be a part of the solution. Being proactive and educating yourself and those around you about this issue is just the beginning.
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