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