By Katlyn Miller, Development Associate - Manager of Communications & Media Strategy
January is Human Trafficking Awareness Month. At My Sisters’ Place, we strive to educate communities about human trafficking and help survivors every day. Throughout the month, we’ll be sharing information on different aspects of human trafficking. To kick things off, let’s take a look at what human trafficking is.
What is Human Trafficking?
According to the United States Department of Justice, human trafficking is the “recruitment, harboring, transportation, provision, or obtaining of a person for labor...or commercial sex...through use of force, fraud, or coercion.” Let’s break that down.
There are two forms of human trafficking:
Sex Trafficking pertains to individuals who are forced or coerced into commercial sex acts. Any child under 18 years old who is involved in commercial sex acts is also considered a form of sex trafficking.
Labor Trafficking is when someone is exploited for the purpose of involuntary servitude, peonage, or debt bondage. Survivors of labor trafficking often are promised falsified offers of working conditions, living conditions, and/or pay. Oftentimes, labor trafficking survivors are coerced or forced to stay in their situation due to threats, abuse, or financial/documental restrictions by their traffickers.
In order for an act to be considered human trafficking, it must include force, fraud, and coercion.
Force: physical assault (beating, burning, slapping, hitting, assault with a weapon), sexual assault, rape, physical confinement, and isolation
Fraud: false employment offers, work conditions, promises, or withholding wages
Coercion: threats to life, safety, family members; threats to immigrations status, arrest, or deportation; debt; withholding legal documents; creating a climate of fear and/or psychological abuse
When discussing human trafficking, it’s important to remember this is an issue that is all around us. People can be trafficked regardless of the community they live in, their race, gender, sexual orientation, or nationality. While some people believe human trafficking is a distant problem that only happens in different countries, it is currently happening all over the United States as well. When we are educated and provided with accurate information about human trafficking, it acts as a tool to help spread awareness to help end this epidemic.
If you are a survivor of human trafficking, we encourage you to reach out to our hotline for more information and resources at 1-800-298-7233 (SAFE).