A Primer on End Human Trafficking

Human Trafficking Is

Human trafficking is modern-day slavery. It is a heinous crime of exploitation committed against a person or people by a person or people. There are a number of guesses (and they are all guesses) as to how many people in the world are enslaved, ranging from 4 million to 27 million. Eight out of ten trafficking victims are women or girls; half of all trafficking victims are children. Human beings are the second most profitable commodity to trade in the world, slightly behind drugs. Human trafficking is a personal and institutional evil, which strips victims of their freedom, their most basic human rights and their dignity.

Since human trafficking is a crime, it is most often defined by a law. In the U.S., the main law which defines trafficking is the Trafficking Victims Protection Act, which was reauthorized in 2008. There are a number of other definitions, from the UN for example.

Human Trafficking Is NOT

• Trafficking is not the same thing as human smuggling or illegal immigration. Smuggling is a crime against a country's borders, in which a person voluntarily enters a country illegally. Trafficking is a crime against a person, in which that person's work is exploited. Someone can be a trafficking victim even if they entered the country legally.
• Trafficking is also not just a "plight of Southeast Asian girls." Victims are found in every country in the world, including the U.S. The Department of State estimates 14,500 to 17,000 people are trafficked into the U.S. each year. Victims in the U.S. have been found in massage parlors, working at restaurants, selling trinkets, braiding hair in salons, and singing in church choirs, as well as in many other industries.
• Trafficking is not a crime that requires movement. Since trafficking is about exploiting the work of a person, it can happen in the same country, city or even room in which that person lives or works.

Sex and Labor; Domestic and International

Victims of human trafficking are often divided into sex trafficking victims and labor trafficking victims. However, this division is often unhelpful, since sex trafficking is at its core a form of labor trafficking, and since victims are often sexually assaulted or raped in the workplace. Victims are also often divided into internationally trafficked victims (have crossed national boundaries) and domestically trafficked victims (have not crossed any boundaries). Again, this division can be unhelpful since slavery is egregious in every country, and since the division puts emphasis on how the victim was moved, not how the victim was exploited (see Human Trafficking Is NOT above). Every situation of human trafficking is different.

Human trafficking is a prolific, horrific abuse of the very essence of humanity: our freedom. The harm slavery inflicts stretches far beyond those who are brutalized by slaveholders and sickens our society and our relationships. But there’'s hope. Human trafficking could be eradicated in our lifetimes and our children's lifetimes. As Mr. Lincoln once said, "He who would be no slave, must consent to have no slave." But Mr. Lincoln's words become truly powerful when read with those of a very different man - Dr. Seuss. "Unless someone like YOU cares a whole awful lot, nothing is going to get better, it's not."