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HUMAN TRAFFICKING The following is excerpted from the website of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ Fact Sheet: Human Trafficking, www.acf.hhs.gov/trafficking/about/fact_human.html. Human trafficking is a form of slavery where victims are subjected to force, fraud, or coercion, for the purpose of sexual exploitation or forced labor. The Trafficking Victims Protection Act of
2000 (TVPA) defines “Severe Forms of
Trafficking in Persons” as: Human traffickers use force—rape, beatings and/or confinement—to control their victims, especially during the early stages of victimization. Human traffickers make false offers that induce people into trafficking situations. Women and children who reply to advertisements for jobs as waitresses, maids and dancers in other countries are sometimes forced into prostitution once they arrive at their destinations. Human traffickers coerce victims with threats of serious harm to them or their loved ones back home. Victims are also led to believe that they will be arrested or deported if they don’t follow the traffickers’ demands. Human traffickers sometimes loan money to people to entice them to move to another country. To repay these transportation fees victims fall into debt bondage. Victims do not realize that their debts may be legally unenforceable and that it is illegal for anyone to dictate how to pay off debts. Traffickers may also take away the victims’ travel documents and isolate them to make escape more difficult. Victims are usually not allowed to have the money they are supposed to be earning and may not know the amount of their debt. Victims who realize that their bondage is illegal or unjust are often unable to obtain help because of language, social, or physical barriers. DOMESTIC TRAFFICKING WITHIN THE UNITED STATES Victims of human trafficking include U.S. citizens and residents trafficked within its borders. Similar to other countries, the U.S. has a large domestic component of human trafficking - both sex trafficking and labor trafficking. According to the Polaris Project, a U.S. anti-trafficking organization (http://www.polarisproject.org/), one of the largest forms of domestic sex trafficking in the U.S. involves traffickers who coerce women and children to become part of the commercial sex industry. Traffickers use a variety of techniques, such as unlawful debt incurred through their transportation or recruitment and their "sale" to customers of sexual services, to force them to work in strip clubs, street-based prostitution, escort services, and brothels. Domestic sex traffickers, also known as pimps, target vulnerable youth, especially runaways and homeless youth. Labor trafficking of U.S. citizens occurs primarily in restaurants, the agricultural industry, traveling carnivals, peddling/begging rings, and traveling sales crews.
The following may help identify victims:
HELP FOR VICTIMS OF HUMAN TRAFFICKING
TO FIND PROVIDERS IN CONNECTICUT'S COMMUNITY
RESOURCES DATABASE ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------- SOURCES: Polaris Project: Domestic
Trafficking within the U.S., http://www.polarisproject.org/;
The Barnaba Institute, http://www.barnabainstitute.org;
U.S. Department of Health and Human Services:
Fact Sheet: Human Trafficking; Office of
Victim Services, State of Connecticut Judicial
Branch and U.S. Department of Health and Human
Services: Brochure: Look Beneath the Surface;
U.S. Department of State: Major Forms of
Trafficking in Persons, http://www.state.gov/g/tip/rls/tiprpt/2009/123126.htm. |
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