The Facts

What is Human Trafficking?

· Human trafficking is prolonged cruel or unjust treatment or control, and it comes in many forms- trafficking, child marriage, debt bondage, and forced labor. It exists on every continent, in almost every country.

· The 2021 Global Estimates indicate there are 49.6 million people living in situations of modern slavery on any given day, either forced to work against their will or in a marriage that they were forced into.

· Forced labour accounts for 27.6 million of those in modern slavery and forced marriage for 22 million, or nearly one of every 150 people in the world.

· The problem is getting worse. The 2021 figures show about 10 million more men, women, and children who have been forced to work or marry in the period since the previous estimates were released in 2017.  Resource: Global Estimates of Modern Slavery 2022 | Walk Free

IN WHATEVER FORM, ALL VICTIMS LACK ONE THING—FREEDOM.

Indicators of Human Trafficking:

  • When someone is coerced, forced, or deceived into prostitution or forced labor, that person is a victim of trafficking.

  • Some people are lured into slavery by a person they are romantically involved with. Others are tricked with false promises of a dream job. And, others are forced to sell their bodies by parents trapped in poverty.

  • Many high school and college students use social media to recruit fellow students into situations of sex trafficking.

  • Long-term consequences of sex trafficking include physical and psychological trauma, disease, drug addiction, unintended pregnancy, malnutrition, social ostracism, and even death.

  • Traffickers often promise their slaves freedom if they pay a debt—a false debt that is made up by the trafficker, a debt that never goes away, a debt that keeps a human a slave.

  • While many of us look forward to job promotions, sex trafficking victims have a different idea of what promotion means. To those trafficked, a promotion means the “opportunity” to recruit or transport other victims.

Human Trafficking in the Unites States:

In the United States, traffickers compel victims to engage in commercial sex and to work in both legal and illicit industries and sectors, including in hospitality, traveling sales crews, agriculture, janitorial services, construction, landscaping, restaurants, factories, care for persons with disabilities, salon services, massage parlors, retail services, fairs and carnivals, peddling and begging, drug smuggling and distribution, religious institutions, childcare, and domestic work. Resource: About Human Trafficking - United States Department of State

Who are the oppressed?

50M

people in the world today are oppressed.

24M

are women and children.

12M

are underage children.

The average age of those entrapped by forced labor is 12 years old. That’s right. 12. An age when most of us were in middle school, looking forward to becoming teenagers. But these children are just trying to survive every minute, every day.

Oppressed women and children struggle to live normal lives. Some struggle when they’re forced to prostitute themselves. Others struggle as they work without pay. They live in constant fear—fear of those who hold power over them, fear of what the next day holds. They struggle to have hope.

The Stats:

  • 53 countries reported committing child sexual exploitation in exchange for financial support to orphanages and schooling.

  • 22 million were in forced marriage. An increase between 2016 and 2021, partly due to the impact of COVID, conflict, and climate change.

  • Children represent 1/4 of those oppressed.

  • Nearly 28 million were recorded to have been forced into labor.

Oppression plagues our world. Together, we can change that.

Everyone can help set women and children on the pathway to freedom.

Lace up your shoes and join us to combat these dark social injustices and set women and children on the path to freedom.