What is Human Trafficking?
Human trafficking is the exploitation of a person for the purposes of forced labor or commercial sex, regardless of citizenship or nationality. However, Americans generally tend to think that human trafficking is a crime that occurs in other countries, to foreigners who should have known better, or to those who brought it upon themselves. These assumptions are misconceptions; trafficking happens here in the United States to U.S. citizens (USC), and in every state in the nation.
- While foreigners who arrive in the U.S. legally and illegally are susceptible to human trafficking situations, U.S. citizens too fall victim to this crime at an alarming rate.
- Without regard to nationality of victims and with greed as their motivation, traffickers seek to exploit those who are most vulnerable – the young, the desperate, and the easily manipulated.
When trafficking is mentioned, Americans often visualize a foreign female who was deceived upon arriving in the U.S. and finds herself being sexually exploited. They do not imagine a USC child or adult who was kidnapped or lured from home and is prostituted at a local truck stop. Sadly, Americans tend to refer to USC trafficking victims as anything but victims. They are referred to as criminals, prostitutes, child prostitutes, runaways, throwaways, addicts, or juvenile delinquents. Traffickers are often referred to only as pimps, perpetrators, or criminals.
- U. S. Department of State, Human Smuggling and Trafficking Center
Human Trafficking is a crime against humanity. It involves an act of recruiting, transporting, transferring, harboring or receiving a person through a use of force, coercion or other means, for the purpose of exploiting them. Every year, thousands of men, women and children fall into the hands of traffickers, in their own countries and abroad. Every country in the world is affected by trafficking, whether as a country of origin, transit or destination for victims.