Section 2: What - Identifying Trafficking
2.1 Labor Trafficking:
Labor trafficking is a form of modern-day slavery where individuals perform labor or services through coercion and force. Prevalent situations include debt bondage, forced labor, and child labor. To pressure people into acting against their will, traffickers will use violence, threats, or lies.
The chart above reveals that demand for labor trafficking is exponentially growing compared to any other exploitation type. Due to growth of the global population, there is a high request for consumer and agricultural goods production. Thus, traffickers target more individuals, and human trafficking victims become the ones who produce our goods. However, the positive news is that you can help by supporting fair pay for workers and avoiding cheap goods produced by trafficking victims. Consumers have the power to reduce rates of labor trafficking!
Labor traffickers exploit individuals with impoverished backgrounds and their lack of access to education. Traffickers entice victims by using false job advertisements for opportunities. And as a result, these victims who don't know much about the dangers of this trap end up working for little to no pay, incentivizing traffickers to increasingly exploit their victims.
2.2 Sex trafficking
Sex trafficking, on the other hand, is when one uses force, fraud, or coercion to cause a commercial sex act. This act refers to prostitution, pornography, sex tourism, child marriage, and any type of involuntary sexual performance in exchange for money or items of value.
Traffickers employ a variety of control tactics to secure the victims’ “loyalty.” This includes physical and emotional abuse, sexual assault, confiscation of identification and money, isolation from friends and family, and even renaming victims. Often, traffickers identify and leverage their victims’ vulnerabilities in order to create dependency. Frightened and brainwashed, the victims will remain subjects of the trafficker.
2.3 What are Common Methods Traffickers Use In the Human Trafficking Industry?
The three most common methods used by human traffickers are force, coercion, and fraud to induce victims. Some examples are imposing debt, false employment opportunities, fake promises of a better life, psychological manipulation, and violence or threats of violence. All trafficking tactics must in some way connect to these three categories.
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"Force" is any physical violence, rape, kidnapping, constraint, and confinement; Examples of physical violence include beating, stabbing, hitting, and punching.
Traffickers commonly rape their victims to ensure dominance and utilize rape as a weapon to keep the victims "in place." Sexual assault can even occur in a gang setting where there are multiple perpetrators.
Kidnapping is one of the least common tactics that traffickers employ, mainly because it involves law enforcement and would be risky. In most common kidnapping cases, victims (adults and children) are taken away and held captive. A common misconception is that kidnappers would always demand money in exchange for releasing the victim. However, the victim could also be confined, bound with ropes or chains, forced to engage in involuntary commercial sex acts or forced labor, often never released for life.
Fraud pertains to false promises of job opportunities, better education, and love or marriage. Traffickers use a hook to seduce their targets into the industry.
Coercion is a series of psychological traps. The trafficker would typically threaten and harm the victims in the following ways:
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2.3.1 Tell Friends or Family
Traffickers obtain the victims' personal information, including friends' and family members' contact information, by threatening to reveal their participation in sex acts to the victims' acquaintances.
2.3.2 Exposing Photos
In the case of sexual exploitation, traffickers can threaten to harm the victims' reputation by posting nude photos online and sending them to associates—their goal is to maintain the obedience of victims.
2.3.3 Threats of Legal Actions and Misconstruction of Immigration Facts
Threats of Legal Actions and Misconstruction of Immigration Facts
Human traffickers take advantage of new immigrants or those unfamiliar with the country's law, culture, and language.
2.3.4 Threats to Loved Ones
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When victims are ready to put their risks aside and seek help, they are also risking the safety of their families and loved ones. There are times when traffickers know the information necessary to track down the victim's family, allowing them to pay retribution if they attempt to escape.
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WARNING: This video contains graphic content.
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