A Conversation on Anti-Human Trafficking

International Social Justice CommissionThe Salvation Army

Who are traffickers

The gap in knowledge, globally, of traffickers and theirmethods of operation contributes to the widespreadfailure to identify traffickers and those who assist them.

Traffickers can be men or women

The role played by women in trafficking related criminal Groups vary.

In some criminal groups, women play a significant rolein the trafficking process.

International Scope of the Problem

There are an estimated 27 million slaves in the world today, not including persons trapped in the sex industry.

500,000 women from all over the world are trafficked each year into Western Europe alone.

The last 3 years have seen a 20 percent increase in the number of prostituted children in Thailand.

One million children enter the sex trade each year.

Understanding Sex Trafficking

3. A high prevalence of foreign-born women in a country’s sex industry is highly indicative of sex trafficking.

This sign, outside a Hong Kong club, reads: "Young, fresh Hong Kong girls; white, clean Malaysian girls; Beijing women; luxurious ghost girls from Russia."

ADDRESSING THE INTERNAL WOUNDS: THE PSYCHOLOGICAL AFTERMATH OF HUMAN

TRAFFICKING

The trauma associated with trafficking and its psychological effects can be devastating and, if left unaddressed, can undermine victims’ recovery and potentially contribute to vulnerability to re-victimization. Because traffickers dehumanize and objectify their victims, victims’ innate sense of power, visibility, and dignity often become obscured. Traffickers also use coercive tactics and force to make their victims feel worthless and emotionally imprisoned. As a result, victims can lose their sense of identity and security.

A variety of psychological symptoms can surface over a period of time even after victims escape or are rescued from the trafficking environment. Thus, it is critically important to incorporate psychological support and treatment within victims’ services and protocols.

Steps to Reinstating Psychological Well Being: ❖ Establishing a dependable safety network for victims to utilize and ensuring all their basic

needs are met; ❖ Ensuring privacy and confidentiality to protect victims and their families and friends; ❖ Soliciting the support of medical experts, social workers, and psychologists who are trained in human

trafficking and can provide trauma-specific therapy; ❖ Attending to victims’ physical well-being, as sometimes there are physical symptoms existing

simultaneously with or indicative of underlying psychological disorders; ❖ Providing collaborative therapies that are culturally sensitive; ❖ Fostering an empowering environment in which victims actively participate as consumers of

therapeutic and other services; ❖ Assessing victims for self-injurious and suicidal behavior; ❖ Screening for post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), substance abuse/dependence, depression, and

anxiety – mental disorders that can develop as a result of being trafficked; ❖ Providing unconditional support, especially amidst victims’ potential denial, distrust, reticence,

shame, or anger; ❖ Working towards social and familial reintegration; ❖ Rebuilding identity; and ❖ Reestablishing skill-sets, self-esteem, and personal interests

Victim’s Empowerment and AccessThe following “good practices” set the stage for a victim-centered approach to care that allows victims the opportunity to make choices in their care. These approaches can help victims put distance between the trafficking experience and the rest of their lives.

• Open Shelters• Full Information to Victims• Confidentiality• Residency• Right to Work

Human Trafficking Defined

The TVPA defines “severe forms of trafficking in persons” as:

A. sex trafficking in which a commercial sex act is induced by force, fraud, or coercion, or in which the person induced to perform such an act has not attained 18 years of age;

B. 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.

A victim need not be physically transported from one location to another in order for the crime to fall within these definitions.

MISPERCEPTIONS LEAD TO MISSED OPPORTUNITIES

TO IDENTIFY VICTIMS

“Trafficking doesn’t happen here.”“She’s a criminal.”“It’s cultural.”“He agreed to do this.”“She’s free to come and go.”“He didn’t complain.”“Trafficking doesn’t happen where prostitution is legal.”“There’s nothing I can do about it.”

Pathway Home to a New Life

Service Model

Brief Description of Service:To facilitate the supported repatriation of female victims of Human Traffiking to create and implement a self-determined pathway to a new life in their country of origin.

Client Target Group :The client target group will be women who have been repatriated from Taiwan to Indonesia and the Philippines following release from human trafficking.

 

Trafficking: the Modern Day Slavery

 Caused by Poverty – Fueled by Demand

No Demand, no Sale!   

Organized byThe NGO Committee to Stop Trafficking in Persons

La Trata de Personas

MATERIAL EDUCATIVOCONTRA LA TRATA DE PERSONAS EJÉRCITO DE SALVACIÓN

Ways You Can Help Fight Human Trafficking

After first learning about human trafficking, many people want to help in some way but do not know how. Here are just a few ideas for your consideration.1. Learn human trafficking red flags and ask follow up questions so that

you can detect a potential trafficking situation.2. Be a conscientious consumer. Make socially responsible investments.

Let your favorite retailers know that you support their efforts to maintain a slavery free supply chain. Encourage your company or your employer to take steps to investigate and eliminate human trafficking throughout its supply chain and to publish the information for consumer awareness. Refer to the Department of Labor's List of Goods Produced by Child Labor or Forced Labor.

3. Hire trafficking survivors.4. Volunteer your professional services to help an anti-trafficking organization that need help from lawyers, doctors, dentists, counselors, translators and interpreters, graphic designers, public relations and media professionals, event planners, and accountants.5. Donate funds or needed items to an anti-trafficking organization.6. Organize a fundraiser and donate the proceeds to an anti-trafficking organization.7. Join or start a grassroots human trafficking coalition.8. Encourage your local schools to include modern slavery in their curriculum. As a parent, educator, or school personnel, be aware of how traffickers target school-aged children.

9. Meet with and write to your local, state and federal government representatives to let them know that you care about combating human trafficking in your community.10. Create and distribute public awareness materials such as t-shirts, posters, and public service announcements for radio. Or distribute already existing materials available from appropriate Government sources.11. Host an awareness event to watch and discuss a recent human trafficking documentary. On a larger scale, host a human trafficking film festival. Several noteworthy films and documentaries have been produced in the last several years that bring attention to the plight of victims worldwide.- The International Social Justice Commission can suggest titles.12. Write a letter to the editor for your local paper about human trafficking in your community.