Human Trafficking Red Flag- Working and Living Conditions

The working and living conditions may present red flags.

For example, you may note that potential victims in the workplace express that they aren't doing the job they expected.

You may also notice the victims appear deprived of food, water, sleep, and/or medical care as well as satisfactory living conditions.

Red flags are clearly indicated when minors are engaged in commercial sex. 




Reference: This information has been shared from the Human Trafficking Awareness Training provided by the U.S Department of Homeland Security. For more information, or to participate in the online training visit  www.dhs.gov and visit us at www.conroyassociates.com

Human Trafficking Red Flag- Freedom

When a potential victim defers to another person to speak for him or her, or appears to have been coached on what to say to authorities, it can be an indicator of human trafficking.

Additionally, if a potential victim isn't allowed to socialize and communicate with family, friends, or at community events, this is also a red flag that the person is being controlled. 




Reference: This information has been shared from the Human Trafficking Awareness Training provided by the U.S Department of Homeland Security. For more information, or to participate in the online training visit  www.dhs.gov and visit us at www.conroyassociates.com

Human Trafficking Red Flag- Safety

Human traffickers will control victims by threatening potential victims or their families with harm. 

Potential victims may have bruises or other signs of physical abuse.

Victims will also be threatened with deportation or arrest in order to control them.

If you find that potential victims appear fearful, this could mean a red flag should be raised. 




Reference: This information has been shared from the Human Trafficking Awareness Training provided by the U.S Department of Homeland Security. For more information, or to participate in the online training visit  www.dhs.gov and visit us at www.conroyassociates.com

Human Trafficking Red Flag- Wages

Traffickers often control victims by prohibiting them from controlling their own money.
Another method is not paying them what was promised.

This makes it is more difficult to pay off debts, which means traffickers are able to exercise more control over the victims.

Traffickers will also withhold pay completely for a victim's work. Control over a victim's pay can
sometimes be the result of the victim working to pay off a debt.



Reference: This information has been shared from the Human Trafficking Awareness Training provided by the U.S Department of Homeland Security. For more information, or to participate in the online training visit  www.dhs.gov and visit us at www.conroyassociates.com

Human Trafficking Red Flag- Documents

When traffickers take victims' personal documents, such as identification papers and/or travel documents, this effectively restricts victims' freedom of movement and opportunity. 

Reference: This information has been shared from the Human Trafficking Awareness Training provided by the U.S Department of Homeland Security. For more information, or to participate in the online training visit  www.dhs.gov and visit us at www.conroyassociates.com

Red Flags of Human Trafficking

There are a number of red flags, or indicators, which can help you identify human trafficking. Recognizing the signs is the first step in identifying victims.

Each red flag focuses on the traffickers' methods of control and can be broken down into categories: personal documents, wages, safety, freedom, and working and living conditions. Think of these categories as pieces of a puzzle. Any method in any category can give a trafficker control. However, the methods can be interrelated and combining them can lead to total control over the victim.

If you decide to participate in the online training, you would select each red flag category to learn more about the methods of controlling potential victims. Here we will post a new red flag each  day, so be sure to check back with us. 



Reference: This information has been shared from the Human Trafficking Awareness Training provided by the U.S Department of Homeland Security. For more information, or to participate in the online training visit  www.dhs.gov and visit us at www.conroyassociates.com

Victims are vulnerable to trafficking because of...

Human trafficking is a worldwide epidemic and that means it occurs within our borders as well. Human trafficking can occur anywhere, from the darkest corners of the globe, to your own backyard.

Traffickers prey on victims with little or no social safety net. They look for victims in vulnerable situations due to economic hardship, political instability, natural disasters, and other causes. Traffickers also exploit people who are vulnerable because of their illegal immigration status. 



Reference: This information has been shared from the Human Trafficking Awareness Training provided by the U.S Department of Homeland Security. For more information, or to participate in the online training visit  www.dhs.gov and visit us at www.conroyassociates.com

Trafficking vs. Smuggling

What sets human smuggling apart from human trafficking is that the defining element of human smuggling is transportation, while the defining element of human trafficking is exploitation. In fact, a human trafficking victim would not need to travel anywhere to be trafficked. And, people who are smuggled are not necessarily exploited and are acting out of their own free will.

Human smuggling is the facilitation, transportation, attempted transportation, or illegal entry of a person across an international border. It occurs in violation of one or more countries' laws, either clandestinely (by avoiding checkpoints altogether) or through deception, such as the use of fraudulent documents. Smuggling usually ends when a border has been crossed and a smuggling fee has been paid.

By contrast, human trafficking is non-consensual; the exploitation typically occurs indefinitely. 

However, a case of human smuggling can become a case of human trafficking if the "smuggler" forces the individual being smuggled to work off fees that were not originally agreed upon. In this case the smuggler may threaten the smuggled person's life or the lives of their loved ones to ensure cooperation. 

Reference: This information has been shared from the Human Trafficking Awareness Training provided by the U.S Department of Homeland Security. For more information, or to participate in the online training visit  www.dhs.gov and visit us at www.conroyassociates.com

Human Trafficking is defined as...

Anywhere between 12 to 27 million people are held in slavery around the world today. Men, women, and children. Documented and undocumented. Foreign nationals and citizens. For sex and for labor. All around the world and in the United States. You may think slavery is only in history books but it is happening today, for labor and commercial sex.

So what is human trafficking?

Human trafficking is defined as the act of recruiting, harboring, transporting, providing, or obtaining a person for labor services or commercial sex acts through force, fraud, or coercion, for the purpose of exploitation, involuntary servitude, peonage, debt bondage, or slavery. It includes any commercial sex involving a minor.

Human trafficking is not a crime of movement, but rather the dehumanizing practice of holding another in compelled service using whatever means necessary, whether physical or psychological. People who are subjected to involuntary servitude are held against their will and forced to work, frequently under the threat of violence to themselves or their families.

Victims of debt bondage are typically required to work for low wages to repay an excessive or unreasonable amount of money in exchange for a service, such as transportation or a recruiter fee for a job. The victims are then compelled to pay off their debts by becoming modern day slaves.

In the United States, trafficking occurs for commercial sexual exploitation in street prostitution, massage parlors, and brothels. Forced labor can also occur in domestic service; agricultural, manufacturing, and janitorial services; hospitality industries; construction; health and elder care.

Traffickers coerce, force, or deceive victims into performing commercial sex acts. Sex trafficking may include prostitution, pornography, live-sex shows, and sex tourism. Victims can be undocumented workers, migrant and temporary workers on legitimate visas, or even U.S. citizens. Human trafficking can exist in any workplace.

Human smuggling is different from human trafficking. For more information on the differences, please continue to visit our blog. 



Reference: This information has been shared from the Human Trafficking Awareness Training provided by the U.S Department of Homeland Security. For more information, or to participate in the online training visit  www.dhs.gov and visit us at www.conroyassociates.com

Identity Theft: Stay Educated- Tip of the Week

Have Your Mail Held While Traveling 

If your mail is left unattended while your out of town, it is possible that your mail can be stolen and the info used for stealing your identity. This would be most likely to occur if you have a mail box that is easy to access (doesn't require a key to gain entry). If you take a little vacation you should schedule a hold for your mail. This ensures no mail is delivered and left sitting in your mailbox while you’re away. It may be tempting to have a friend or neighbor get your mail for you, but it’s better to play it safe and just have the post office hold it. In the past, the post office did not charge for this service; if they do now, it is probably at a reasonable rate and well worth the expense for the assurance that your personal information is secure. 



For more information visit us at www.conroyassociates.com

Identity Theft: Stay Educated- Type 7

Synthetic Identity Theft

This is the “latest thing” in the ID theft world. The thief will take parts of information from many victims and combine it. The new identity isn't any specific person, but all the victims can be affected when it’s used. It will show up in the areas covered in previous posts, so look to those sections for additional information.

Synthetic identity theft has also been used to describe any act in which the criminal attempts to convince someone they are another person, real or fictional. This careful wording is no doubt reactionary to the the US Supreme Court ruling that an illegal immigrant has not committed a crime unless he or she was aware that the SSN they were using belonged to an actual citizen.



For more information visit us at www.conroyassociates.com

The Global Realities of Human Trafficking

We've all heard the notion that slavery is a blemish on American history; while that is true, it is inaccurate. Slavery is still very prevalent in the United States and other countries around the world. Human trafficking, commonly referred to as modern day slavery, is the illegal trade in beings for the purposes of commercial sexual exploitation or forced labor. The buying and selling of human beings is an extremely lucrative business, second only to drug trafficking as the most profitable illegal industry in the world. . 

The U.S. Department of State conducted a Trafficking In Persons (TIP) Report for 2012 which classifies the worlds nations into five categories  Tier 1, Tier 2, Tier 2 Watch List,Tier 3, and Special Cases. Below are the definitions for each category and the statistics showing how many countries qualify for each classification.


Tier 1- Countries whose governments fully comply with the Trafficking Victims Protection Act's (TVPA) minimum standards.

Tier 2- Countries whose governments do not fully comply with the TVPA's minimum standards, but are making significant efforts to bring themselves into compliance with those standards.

Tier 2 Watch List- Countries whose governments do not fully comply with the TVPA's minimum standards, but are making significant efforts to bring themselves into complacence with those standards AND:
a) The absolute number of victims of sever forms of trafficking is very significant or is significantly increasing.
b) There is a failure to provide evidence of increasing efforts to combat severe forms of trafficking in persons from the previous year; or
c) The determination that a country is making significant efforts to bring itself into compliance with minimum standards is based on commitments by the country to take additional future steps over the next year.

Tier 3- Countries whose governments do not comply with the TVPA's minimum standards and are making no efforts to do so.

Special Cases- No definition given. 


Tier 1- 33 countries
Tier 2- 93 countries
Tier 2WL- 42 countries
Tier 3- 17 countries
Special Case- 1

186 countries were listed in the TIP Report and of those only 33 fully comply with the minimum standards set by the Trafficking Victims Protection Act.That means that, despite the level of effort to comply, 153 countries do not fully abide by the TVPA's minimum standards. According to The United Nations there are 7 billion people populating this planet as of October 2011. Only taking into consideration simple calculations and overall populous averages, approximately 83% of the world is not in compliance with the Trafficking Victims Protection Act. That means that approximately 5,810,000,000 people do not have the assurance of being protected by their governments if they were to become victims of human trafficking. 


For more information visit us at www.conroyassociates.com