Did You Know?

The Problem:

What Is Human Trafficking

According to the Trafficking Victims Protection Act , “Severe Forms of Trafficking in Persons” is defined as:

Sex Trafficking: the recruitment, harboring, transportation, provision, or obtaining of a person for the purpose of a commercial sex act, in which a commercial sex act is induced by force, fraud, or coercion, or in which the person forced to perform such an act is under the age of 18 years; or

Labor Trafficking: 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.

Human trafficking is also frequently called ‘modern slavery’ or ‘modern day slavery.’

The Scope of the Problem

As a covert criminal industry, recently identified, solid statistics are difficult to find.

“We don’t know how many people are being trafficked in North Carolina or even in the Triangle. But, if I wanted to buy someone for an hour, I could make a call and have someone here within 15 minutes.” – An FBI agent speaking on a panel about human trafficking at UNC Chapel Hill

However, we do know that:

–There are between 10 and 30 million people being held as slaves in the world today.

–At least 100,000 minors in the US are forced to be in the sex-trafficking industry.

–The U.S. Department of State estimates that 14,500-17,500 are trafficked into the Unites States each year

–The average age children’s trafficking begins: 12-14

–Human Trafficking is tied with weapons trafficking for the 2nd largest grossing crime in the US

–Human Trafficking is a demand-based industry

–the demand for cheap commodities leads to the demand for exploited and enslaved labor

–the demand for sex on command leads to the demand for women, men, and children to be made available

A recent news story offers a glimpse into the nature of the problem domestically:

“This is happening in virtually every medium and large-sized city virtually every day of the week, every week of the year. You see an arrest like this, it’s an indication of how much more of this is out there.” – Federal Prosecutor T. Markus Funk

There have been documented cases of sex and labor trafficking in the Raleigh-Durham area.

One woman’s Story:

“I was transported to Florida, and one of the bosses told me I would be working in a brothel as a prostitute. I told him he was mistaken and that I was going to be working in a restaurant. He said I owed him a smuggling debt, and the sooner I paid it off the sooner I could leave. I was constantly guarded and abused. If any of the girls refused to be with a customer, we were beaten. If we adamantly refused, the bosses would show us a lesson by raping us brutally. We worked six days a week, 12 hours a day. Our bodies were sore and swollen. If anyone became pregnant we were forced to have abortions. The cost of the abortion was added to the smuggling debt. I was enslaved for several months; other women were enslaved for up to a year. Our enslavement finally ended when law enforcement raided he brothels and rescued us.”

Taken from http://worldreliefdurham.org/human-trafficking/

Church, what will we do about this?