On Tuesday, July 17, 2012,
the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations held a hearing on the next ten years
in the fight against human trafficking.
Since I am criminal justice major and a member of the Human Trafficking
Task Force in Michigan,
I attended the hearing. Often described as
invisible because its signs are not always obvious to the untrained eye, human
trafficking is a serious crime affecting millions worldwide. In June, the International Labor Organization
released a report which estimated that 20.9 million persons suffer from the
abuses of forced labor at any given moment, and the UN Office of Drugs and
Crimes claimed that human trafficking yields $32 billion dollars in profits each
year. Although there are many forms of
human trafficking, one aspect of trafficking is consistent in all forms—the abuse
of the vulnerability of victims. Despite
its nickname, the United
States is not the “Land of the Free,” for
modern day slavery is not only a distant problem. Criminal justice experts suggest that 200,000
to 300,000 U.S. youth are
currently at risk of being trafficked, and calls to the National Trafficking
Resource Center
hotline drastically increased by an alarming 338 percent from 2008 to 2011. Last year, Texas Attorney General Greg Abbot
referred to the Super Bowl as the single largest human trafficking incident in
the United States.
While many persons may feel
that they cannot do anything to solve the trafficking problem, knowing what to
look for in a trafficking victim and reporting unusual behavior may help save a
life. U.S. Customs and Border Protection
lists several signs of trafficking on its website.
Suspect that something is amiss if an individual:
- Lacks identification documents or travel documents
- Lives and works in
the same place
- Lacks freedom of
movement
- Seems to be
restricted from socializing, attending religious services or contacting
family
- Seems to have been
deprived of basic life necessities, such as food, water, sleep or medical
care
- Shows signs of
having been abused or physically assaulted. Such signs range from the more
obvious, such as broken bones, to the more subtle, such as branding or
tattooing
- Seems submissive
or fearful in the presence of others
- Seems not to
control his or her schedule
- Seems to lack
concrete short- or long-term plans
- Seems to lack
knowledge about the place where he or she lives
- Appears to date
much older, abusive or controlling men
United States Customs and Border Protection. (2012, July 22).
Retrieved from http://www.cbp.gov/xp/cgov/border_security/human_trafficking/stories_info/overview.xml
If you suspect a
case of human trafficking, call 1-866-347-2423 to report it.
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