TRAFFICKING AFFECTS PEOPLE OF ALL AGES, RACES, GENDERS AND ABILITIES
What is Human Trafficking?
Human Trafficking is the exploitation of people through force, fraud or coercion for the purposes of commercial sex or forced labor. Any person under age 18 who performs a commercial sex act is considered a victim of human trafficking, regardless of whether force, fraud, or coercion was used.
People do not have to be transported across boarders for trafficking to take place. It can occur within a single country or community. Trafficking can take many forms including sexual exploitation, forced labor, begging, drug dealing, domestic servitude, force marriage and organ removal.
According to the Federal Definition in the Trafficking Victims Protection Act of 2000 (TVPA 2000), Sex trafficking can be a commercial sex act induced by force, fraud, or coercion, or in which the person induced to perform such act has not attained 18 years of age. Trafficking also includes the
recruitment, harboring, transportation, provision, or obtaining of a person for labor or services, through the use of force, fraud, or coercion for the purpose of subjection to involuntary servitude, peonage, debt bondage, or slavery. Full text of the most recent TVPA reauthorization of 2000
The Trafficking in Persons (TIP) Report is an annual publication by the United States Department of State that ranks the U.S and foreign governments based on their acknowledgment and effort to abolish human trafficking. The publication reflects data collected from a total of 188 countries and territories including the United States; the countries are ranked according to standards that have been created based on the Palermo Protocol. The Palermo Protocol was created by the United Nations and it requires governments to prosecute traffickers, protect survivors of trafficking and work to prevent human trafficking. Full Text of the most recent TIP Report
Myths and Facts
Myth: Human trafficking only occurs outside the United States or to foreign nationals.
FACT: Human trafficking survivors in the United States are BOTH foreign born and U.S. citizens.
Myth: Human trafficking is only about victims being sex trafficked.
FACT: Human trafficking is NOT limited to sex trafficking and involves forced labor such as domestic service work, food service, agriculture work, etc.
Myth: Only women and girls are trafficked.
FACT: Survivors vary in age, gender and sexual orientation and are NOT limited to cisgender and heterosexual women and girls.
Myth: Traffickers kidnap their victims as seen in the film series Taken.
FACT: Traffickers target people they know and do NOT solely target strangers.
Myth: Only undocumented foreign nationals get trafficked in the United States.
FACT: Justice At Last clients include foreign nationals who have entered the US lawfully and are legally working here as well as US citizens.
Myth: Human trafficking involves transporting a person across state or national borders.
FACT: Human smuggling, which involves the unlawful border crossings is a crime against a country. Human trafficking is a crime against an individual and it does not require any transportation or movement. Trafficking survivors can be trafficked in their own homes.