Human Trafficking

Before you read my blog, please read the website article below. Please note that the content in the article is very disturbing and caution is advised. I will disclose my reason for posting it in my blog.

http://www.wral.com/news/local/story/5445704/

Sad right? Well… this blog is to help you become aware of the worldwide epidemic of human trafficking and how you can contribute to the awareness which can ultimately aid in its ending. By definition, human trafficking is the commerce and trade in the movement or migration of people, legal and illegal for the purposes of slavery, prostitution, forced labor and servitude. The 5 year old “adopted” African boy was “trafficked” through the adoption system for the purposes of sexual slavery. This problem is overwhelming on a monumental scale and the percentages of the victims are not accurate because the crime can be difficult to detect in the forefront.

Below are highlights according to the Bureau of Justice Statistics from the Human Trafficking Reporting System (HTRS) from January 1, 2007, to September 30, 2008: http://www.ojp.usdoj.gov/bjs/abstract/cshti08.htm

• 1,229 alleged incidents of human trafficking were reported to the task forces from January 1, 2007 to September 30, 2008
• Most (83%) of the reported incidents involved allegations of sex trafficking. Labor trafficking accounted for 12% of incidents, and other or unknown forms of human trafficking made up 5%
• Information on the number of suspects was available for 475 alleged human trafficking incidents. Among these, task forces reported 871 known suspects and arrest data on 216 suspects.
  

This problem exists on both an international and domestic scale. From my understanding, the way that it works on a domestic level is surrounded mostly by runaway teens and immigrates that come to the US. Predators lure immigrates to the US by offering them promising career opportunities such as housekeeping, waitressing or babysitting. As the victim appeals to the offer, they are transferred to a location in the US, aka hot spots, and introduced to the world slavery. Runaways are easy targets for predators to manipulate. Since they lack love and affection at home, they are susceptible to believing anyone that gives them attention. This allows the predator to take advantage of the victim as they are nice and persuasive to them. Once the predator has the victims in their control, the victim is trafficked throughout the state(s) forced prostitution or slavery.

It might seem impossible to track the predators/criminal and locates victims/survivors. It is insinuated that if the victim is not found w/I 48 hours of being trafficked, they will most likely never be found. Please do not lose faith or hope for the rescue of these innocent woman and children! The way that you can help is by being observant in your community. Below are easy actions you can do that might save lives of these types of victims:

Be observant in your community and look for these signs:

• Strange noises (i.e. screaming, yells, etc) coming from nearby house
• Many men coming in and out of a home
• Different women or children being rushed into the home.
• If you or anyone might be experiencing these symptom w/I your/their community, please contact 911 and report it.
  

Hotline:
If you think you have come in contact with a victim of human trafficking, call the Trafficking Information and Referral Hotline at 1.888.3737.888. This hotline will help you determine if you have encountered victims of human trafficking, will identify local resources available in your community to help victims, and will help you coordinate with local social service organizations to help protect and serve victims so they can begin the process of restoring their lives. For more information on human trafficking visit www.acf.hhs.gov/trafficking.

References:
Below is a list of movie or gatherings that can give you a deeper insight into human trafficking:

Cargo: Lost Innocence, movie, documentary - http://www.cargoinnocencelost.com/home.html

Trade, movie - http://www.tradethemovie.com/

Taken, movie - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taken_(film)

Conference - http://www.prostitutionconference.com/

Websites -
http://www.bsccoalition.org/index.html
http://www.captivedaughters.org/index.htm
http://lahumantrafficking.org/
http://www.prostitutionresearch.com/
http://www.sagesf.org/