Human Trafficking
can happen to anyone, regardless of age, gender, or race. Men, women, and children
are trafficked every day into sexual or labor exploitation across the world. Data and
statistics concerning Human Trafficking are often hard to solidify due to it being a
crime that is primarily underground, and many victims do not reach out for help due
to fear of their traffickers or Law Enforcement.
Types of Human Trafficking.
Human Trafficking has become a hot button issue over the last fifteen years, but understanding the problem has proven to be quite complex. The complexity is due, in part, to the multitude of ways a survivor is trafficked, whether it be sex slavery, labor trafficking, or a combination of both. Polaris, an anti-human trafficking agency that focuses on targeting the systems within the problem, released a report in 2017 that identifies twenty-five different types of human trafficking.
The World.
The International Labor Organization estimates that there are 40.3 million victims of Human Trafficking globally.
75% of these victims are women and girls.
United States.
The United States is ranked as one of the worst countries in the world for Human Trafficking, and it is estimated that 199,000 incidents occur annually.
More than 49,000 cases of Human Trafficking have been reported to the USA’s National Human Trafficking Hotline in the last 10 years. The hotline receives calls from all 50 states every year, and an average of 150 calls per day. These calls are a small percentage of the actual number of Human Trafficking incidents that occur in the Unites States.
North Carolina.
During our work in Eastern North Carolina, we have seen almost all twenty-five types of trafficking mentioned in the Typology report above, but the most prominent that we see in Eastern North Carolina are Escort Services, Illicit Massage Businesses,
Outdoor Solicitation, Residential and Pornography.
the facts
Providers.
Survivors of any type of exploitation desperately need providers that can:
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Respond in their initial phase of crisis and connect them to immediate resources
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Provide safe, nurturing housing while they wait for admission into long-term care
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Provide long-term care to walk them to full restoration and healing
For more information on Human Trafficking, check out the following resources: