The Gardner-Webb University Anti-Human Trafficking Club

This source will help me clarify the immensity of the issue and the need for immediate change. I will also include the true story of two women 's experiences being trafficked from the article "Understanding Human Trafficking in the United States" by T.K. Logan, Robert Walker, and Gretchen Hunt. The two women were brought to America on false promises of good work and fair pay as domestic workers in a home. However, their documents were confiscated upon arrival and the women were heavily abused and taken advantage of for five years in this home. Including this account in my essay will provide readers with a real example of the horrible reality of human trafficking.

Many organizations have formed to establish several resolutions for combating the issue of human trafficking , both locally and nationally. I chose to investigate two existing social awareness campaigns located in Ohio. The reasons I decided to explore these two organizations is because of the obvious, that my classmates and I are in the state of Ohio but overall, it is due to the fact that this state rank's number five in the nation for human trafficking. There are explanations behind the ranking of Ohio for this issue. The first explanation is due to the inner city centers and country counties, which included a big immigrant population. The second explanation is due to five main highways located throughout Ohio. These highways make it convenient for human traffickers (Ohio State Bar Association, 2014).

Human trafficking or sex slavery is a real occurrence.  Force 4 Compassion, a website designated to informing the public about human trafficking reports,  “3,287 people are sold or kidnaped and forced into slavery every day.  That’s 136 an hour and that’s just the reported cases” (“Human Trafficking Facts”). Atwood shines light on the situation by stating one of the main reasons human trafficking occurs is “because there was only so much food to go around" (Atwood 117).  In a world with so much why do young children and families with so little have to suffer?  Why must these girls come to peace with the images they have seen?  Why must families justify the sales of their daughters by stating “In the village it was not called ‘selling,’ this transaction.  The talk about it implied apprenticeship.  The children were being trained to earn their living in a wide world” (Atwood 116).  An honest living that involves a girl not yet a teenage to undress in front of a man multiple times her age in exchange for money (Atwood 131).  It does not have to be that way.  Atwood makes that clear.  If the root of the problem is there is not enough food for the children to survive there is a simple solution. If society was more aware of what was happening the increase in awareness and charitable contributions could lead to a hopeful tomorrow. While this answer seems easy enough to apply the

Human trafficking is not just a part of our history; it is continuously growing around the world today because of traffickers who are using it as an easy way to make a profit. Victims of human trafficking feel as if they have no way to escape because they have limited ways to survive or make a good enough living to support themselves along with their families outside of the sex industry. Women, children and even men from time to time are taken before they get the opportunity to receive little if any education, at all. Therefore, many who could’ve gotten out of the sex industry chose to stay out of fear to return back home after years to be discriminated against by their own families and communities, knowing getting a job would be nearly

Human trafficking is a serious problem in modern society. In fact, the United Nations has referred to it as “one of the gravest human rights violations of our times” (“Secretary - General Calls Human Trafficking”). It is a fast growing industry that affects millions. No gender, age, or status is spared from the cruelty that is trafficking. To stress this point again, human trafficking is not just a problem of the “world” or “United States”, in general. As previously seen, it strikes very close to home, affecting hundreds of men, women, and children of our own community. In fact, “North Carolina ranked as a top-10 state for human trafficking with Charlotte being the top destination. It is estimated that more than 1,700 girls are trafficked

Human Trafficking is serious, you may think that it doesn't affect you, you may think that you can’t do anything about it because the world of Human Trafficking is so much bigger than we as humans can comprehend. Over 27 million people are still trapped in Human Trafficking, and those are the documented people. This is the largest number of slaves ever recorded in history. The majority of trafficking happens in cities like our own. In fact, Houston is one of the top hubs in America when it comes to Human Trafficking. Homeless children – desperate for food, shelter and comfort – are

Human trafficking doesn’t happen in third world countries only. It doesn’t just happen to poor people and it certainly doesn’t solely happen to women. It is present here in the USA but it is hidden, and even worse, so are their victims. They are everywhere yet invisible. They are silently crying for our help through their eyes and smiles. According to Polaris, “…the prevalence of sex trafficking in the United States is still unknown, we do know that women, children, and men are being sold for sex against their will in cities and towns in all 50 states”. Human trafficking can happen to anyone even to Theresa Flores, the author of “The slave across the street”(“Sex trafficking” 2015). An average 15 year old American girl, coming from a privileged background and a respected family became a victim of sex trafficking and through her book, she convinces us that human trafficking doesn’t have a specific demographic.

Human trafficking is in every state of this nation and in every country across the world. It’s in cities, suburbs, and rural areas; being hidden in plain view; unseen by so many. In 2015, 17,500 cases of sex trafficking were reported in the United States (Chawla). This is only the cases that were reported. It is estimated that there were about 20.9 million cases across the world that never got reported in 2015 (Lize). There are more human slaves in the world today than ever before in history (Straker). The purpose of this paper is to educate the reader on human trafficking in the United States and in the World, and prove how bad it has become.

Every year, a countless number of men, women, and children are thrown into human trafficking, unwillingly.

The background behind these countless cases are being twisted with false promises that are then manipulated by people. An example of these “broken promises” when referring to the recruitment of human trafficking could vary from false marriages, to jobs, or citizenship to another country (Homeland Security). They promise the young women, who have been living in poverty, for better things in life to often sell them in exchange for guns and drugs. The United States are also one of the top places of sex trafficking, with almost 14,500-17,500 of women and children being shipped to them from other countries for exchange in the items wanted (Ark of Hope). The victims are placed through negative environments which cause them to gain diseases and feel as if they will never be the same. Aristotle said, “it’s in our darkest moments that we must focus to see the light.” Human trafficking victims often feel worthless and that there is no escaping the past, this leads to the raise of prostitution. There have been almost two-million children who are subjected to prostitution after a sex trade (ark of hope).

When the media talks about human trafficking, the first thing that comes to mind is the kidnapping and sale of women and children. Of girls lured from their homes. But human trafficking is more than just sex trafficking. Many victims of trafficking are conscripted into modern-day slavery through force, fraud, or coercion. This takes the form of debt bondage, forced labor, and involuntary child labor. Human Trafficking is also a supply chain issue.

Why me? How did this happen? It was my fault! They said I would be making money. They would bring my whole family. These are all the responses you here from human trafficking victims. It has been estimated that between fourteen and seventeen thousand woman and children are forced into human and sex trafficking yearly (WTLC, 2015). Human trafficking was said to date back to the origin of the nineteenth century (Derks. 2000).

In today’s world, people believe that all enslavement or forced labor of any kind has quietly deceased over the years, that all types of enslavement are behind modern societies and totally in the past, yet it has been exactly the opposite. An international office stated, “ Only one out of 100 victims of trafficking is ever rescued. This means around only 24,000 out of the 2.4 million people enduring human trafficking will be spared,” (“Combating Human Trafficking”). Human trafficking is still a very big problem across the world, even in the United States. Human trafficking has only increased over the past two decades. It is also not likely that a person being trafficked is only enduring this for a few months and then is set free; people are victims for multiple years, possibly even decades. Human trafficking is still a serious threat to innocent lives across the planet because rates are increasing, people are stuck in that vicious cycle for years, and it is damaging millions of people everyday.

She’s the girl who’s running away from her abusive past, the one who is impoverished and looking for a way to make ends meet, or perhaps, she’s the girl who naively fell in love with the wrong man. Regardless of the reasons, there are nearly 30 million victims of human trafficking globally. There are more slaves now than ever before. Trafficking of persons is not a subject that should be ignored or taken lightly. In order to fully understand the enormity of this crisis, we will examine the root causes, facts, and the impact of human trafficking throughout the world.

“The only thing that I really know about human trafficking is is the fact that people are stolen or purchased from foreign places and domesticated into forced labor. I watch a lot of Law and Order: Special Victims Unit, and because of that there is a lot of informative information that sheds awareness. I remember a specific episode where a group of women were “shipped” from a European country and stored up in a house. They were