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Human Trafficking

Violence Against Women Home > Types of Violence > Human Trafficking

Human trafficking is when a person is lured, recruited, or taken by force into another country, where they are forced to work under brutal and inhuman conditions. Human trafficking happens all over the world. Traffickers target mostly women and children in countries where living conditions are very poor. Victims can be lured with false promises of good jobs and better lives in another country. Sometimes, victims are kidnapped. Once in the new country, victims are forced to work under terrible conditions. Trafficking victims may work on farms, in sweatshops, as maids or nannies in private homes, or as sex workers.

Women and children from poor countries are especially vulnerable. They are often lured into other countries where they are forced into sex work. These women may be sold to pimps, locked up in rooms or brothels for weeks or months, drugged, terrorized, and raped over and over again. Being in a foreign country with no friends or family to turn to and having little or no money makes it hard, if not impossible, to escape. Today, many of the women sold into sex work come from Eastern Europe, where lack of jobs and poverty have forced women to look to other countries for jobs.

Women are not just forced into sex work; they also might be forced into other types of "women's work," such as domestic work. These women may be held hostage in homes where they have to cook, clean, or take care of children for many hours a day, receiving little or no pay for their work. Many times, they are not allowed to have contact with the outside world.

Keep in mind, no one is allowed to:

• force you to work against your will
• collect a debt by using threats or forcing you to work to pay the debt
• force you to work using threats to harm you or your family
• force or pressure you into performing sexual acts
• take away your passport, birth certificate, or ID card to control you or your movements

Additional Information on Human Trafficking:

Publications

1.     Facts About Human Trafficking - This fact sheet provides information regarding the prevalence of human trafficking, the global impact, and the steps the United States is taking to combat human trafficking activity.

   http://www.state.gov/documents/organization/60949.pdf

2.     Rescuing Victims of Modern-Day Slavery - This fact sheet contains information about how to identify victims of trafficking, including children and how (Non Governmental Organizations) NGO help law enforcement officers carry out raids and rescues.

   http://www.state.gov/documents/organization/55342.pdf

3.   Victims of Trafficking and Violence Protection Act of 2000: Trafficking in Persons Report - The TIP Report provides a detailed look at the epidemic of human trafficking with a focus on exposing specific acts that have yet to be acted against by policy and law. It outlines the steps that the United States has taken in dealing with its own trafficking problem, and breaks down the broad scale issue into a nation-by-nation map to demonstrate the global implications of human trafficking.

   http://www.state.gov/g/tip/rls/tiprpt/2005/

4. Turning Pain into Power: Trafficking Survivors' Perspectives on Early Intervention Strategies (Copyright © FVPF) - This publication is intended to help health care providers identify and screen trafficking victims and domestic violence victims over the last decade. This publication helps to answer the following questions regarding how accessible is the health care information to trafficked women and children. How well can they seek treatment at doctor’s offices, clinics or hospitals?

   http://www.endabuse.org/programs/display.php3?DocID=358

Organizations

1.   National Human Trafficking Resource Center
2.   U.S. Department of Labor
3.   U.S. Department of State
4.   United States Department of Justice
5. Family Violence Prevention Fund

= Indicates Federal Resources

Content last updated September 1, 2007.