***Author’s disclaimer: Trigger warning to readers. If you struggle with reading about rape and abuse, this may be too graphic.***
Today, many people believe that slavery has been abolished and no longer exists. However, despite what is commonly believed, slavery–now better known as human trafficking–does exist. Not only does human trafficking exist today, it is everywhere.
According to Polaris Project, an organization that helps prevent human trafficking and spread awareness about it, over 20 million people globally are victims of human trafficking. According to the International Labor Organization, just over half of those victims are women and girls, and about a quarter of the total are children. “The International Labor Organization estimates that forced labor and human trafficking is a $150 billion industry worldwide,” says Polaris Project on their website www.polarisproject.org. You can learn more about the statistics on their website.
Human trafficking, as I’ve said before, exists everywhere. In order to really make a difference and squash the growth of this despicable business, we must first face the facts that it exists and it is in our own backyards. It could impact your children, siblings, cousins, neighbors, classmates, parents, friends and even a whole community. Sex trafficking is an endless cycle of rape, dehumanization and abuse for profit. People are taken and forced to work in dangerous environments, like old factories. The victims are abused every day, wearing scars on more than just their bodies.
Oftentimes it is too dangerous for victims to try to escape. To take that even further, the life these people live while they’re being forced into labor removes them from any sense of safety, protection, or comfort. Isolation and fear become their best friends and any sense of self-agency or power is stripped away. They gain the ultimate sense of “other” in which they are treated as only bodies, not people, and come to believe they are so far from human that any sense of the outside world is diminished or completely out of reach.
[Trigger Warning] An NPR article read: “In the process of working as a prostitute, she [the victim] had to have anal intercourse with men. Many times, if the victims refuse, they are humiliated, beaten up, some are even thrown out a window or killed. So most victims agree. The girl's large intestine became twisted and blocked. She could not go to the toilet and became weak with a serious stomachache. She was dying. But the traffickers didn't help her.” (Malaka Gharib, www.npr.org). This is only one example of the terrors victims of sex trafficking face every single day and night.
Once we realize that human trafficking is a real problem that exists so close to everything we hold dear, we have resources that can help us combat this war on the most fundamental form of freedom. Organizations such as Polaris Project and Amnesty International are working nonstop to fight these injustices.
The National Human Trafficking Resource Center provides a list of signs to look out for if you think someone you know may be a victim of human trafficking. Some of those listed are:
- The person isn’t free to come or go places as they please
- Works excessive, long, or unusual hours
- Is under 18 and promotes commercial acts of sex
- Owes a large debt
- Where they live or work is under high security watch, including opaque windows, barred windows, barbed wire, etc.
- Has a pimp/manager
You can read more about the signs at www.polarisproject.org.
If you suspect someone you know is a victim of human trafficking you can call the National Human Trafficking Resource Center hotline at 1-888-373-7888. If not, you can text HELP to: BeFree (233733). (www.polarisproject.org).
In addition, www.dhs.gov (Homeland Security) clearly states that you should never directly confront the suspected trafficker or victim. The website also provides a number for tip line you can call if you are outside of the country (U.S.) by calling 802-872-6199.
While the point of this article is to spread awareness about human trafficking and what we can all do to help stop it, I also hope to create a dialogue. I think many people are plenty aware that human trafficking exists, but I never hear it come up in discussion. Why aren’t we learning about it in school or classes? Why is it rarely brought up in political discussions by our leaders? The world has many dark fissures that threaten to crack wide open and swallow us whole. We need to start realizing that human trafficking is one of those fissures and it is far wider than many of us realize.
For more information, you can visit the following websites:
https://traffickingresourcecenter.org/states
http://sharedhope.org/the-problem/what-is-sex-trafficking/
https://www.unodc.org/unodc/en/human-trafficking/what-is-human-trafficking.html
