Human trafficking, or more politically incorrect, “modern human slavery”, is a major human rights violation and social problem in the United States and around the world. Slavery has always existed in one way, shape or form, since the dawn of humankind. And, it never went away. Some experts believe there are more slaves on the planet than ever before. Why? It generates hundreds of billions of dollars and is the second most profitable business, right after drug trafficking. The third most lucrative is guns and weapons trafficking.
Trends and Updated Information
Each year brings an increase in human trafficking. Here in the United States, sex trafficking (prostitution) still ranks as the number one type of human trafficking. Labor trafficking is the second most prevalent form. It involves forcing people to work in factories and farms. Another common form of trafficking involves sex and labor. This generally involves mostly young girls and women working in massage parlors.
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Sex trafficking takes place in very specific locations with the most common one being illicit massage and spa businesses. The next most common place is residence-based (for commercial sex), followed by hotel/motel-based (for commercial sex), pornography studios and online ad venues.
The top sites for labor trafficking are private residences (for domestic work), traveling sales crews (in buses, trucks and vans), agriculture (farms and fields), restaurants and the food service in general, and street begging rings.
An update on gender and age shows that young female adults are still the most victimized individuals. In fact, females are almost 7 times more trafficked than males. This update also provides the gender category “Gender Minorities” which includes LGBTQ individuals. There may be evidence of an increase in the number of individuals from this gender category. Twice as many young adults are trafficked compared to minors.
Other Updates
It appears there has been a global increase in the numbers of trafficked individuals. The International Labor Organization now estimates that there are over 40 million victims of human trafficking. Over 80% of them are trapped in forced labor situations. 25% of them are children and 75% are female. Together, the human trafficking industry brings over $150 billion annually.
The United States Department of Labor has found 148 consumer products that we use daily from over 75 countries made by either forced or child labor. The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children reported last year that 1 out of every 7 endangered runaways was most likely a victim of child sex trafficking.
Final Words on Human Trafficking
The very words – “human trafficking”, “sex trafficking”, and “child sex trafficking” should repulse and anger us all. Neither the oldest profession of prostitution, nor the enslaving of humans for labor ceased to exist throughout history. And, they are here to stay as this update has demonstrated. It is therefore imperative that we all learn as much about human trafficking as well as what can be done about it as we can.
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