Human Trafficking makes an estimated one hundred fifty billion dollars per year in profits off of an estimate forty point three million victims - which is the largest number in the history of trafficking on this planet Earth.

This week on the podcast, I’m going to be sharing about the unseen world around us named human trafficking, or in some cases more accurately - modern day slavery—as part of my participation in the month-long fashion challenge Dressember.

Dressember is a social campaign to raise awareness and funds for anti-human trafficking efforts. If after listening to this episode, or before, you feel a call to donate to support the fifteen organizations that have partnered with Dressember, please do so via the links to my campaign page found in the episode show notes and on my Instagram account.

This year, I have a goal of raising $1000 for Dressember and its partner organizations to support programs that aid in the prevention of trafficking, as well as the rescue of victims and the holistic aftercare programs for survivors of trafficking.

Today, I want to introduce the issue to give you an understanding of what trafficking is—literally and legally.

But, before we get going, I want to make a few notes about the show today:

1) that any scenarios or situations given throughout this episode are hypothetical, unless otherwise stated.

2) I will be uploading a transcription of the episode on my website alifemoreconscious dot com soon after each episode is released where I will be linking to all resources used and referenced in the episode.

And 3) in the episode, we will be discussing some difficult topics involving forced labor and commercial sex operations-I am not going into detail on these topics in this episode, but may in future episodes. So please learn with caution and push your comfort zone, but don’t jump out of it. Feel free to stop listening to the episode or reading the blog posts at anytime and don’t feel bad about it. By showing up for this opportunity, you have already opened your mind to the issue—this is simply an opportunity to learn more about human trafficking.

Now that that’s said, let’s get on with the show.

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Human trafficking is all around us, in the clothing we wear, the food we eat, and the services we use, but what is it really?

Is it the kidnapping of an adult for the purpose of forced sexual acts or labor? Is it a child prostituting themself to make money to support their family? Is it a young man recruited from another country for a promising job, who can't leave because their employer is holding their passport documents? Or what about the home servant whose employer paid for her travel and daily expenses, but requires her to work to pay off the debt that has accrued before she can leave? How about the child who is required to marry a suitor by a family member who sold her to the suitor?

All of those are forms of human trafficking. But they aren't all. In the US and many countries abroad, the Palermo Protocol is used to determine whether a situation is trafficking or not. And that is done by defining these three elements - actions, means, and purpose.

Basically, the Palermo Protocol defines human trafficking as a situation when "a trafficker's action taken through the means of force, fraud, or coercion for the purposes of exploitation."

If this definition cannot be satisfied, then it is not trafficking - but that does not mean that the situation is okay.

Let's break down those elements:

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Action.

The Protocol requires the act of either recruitment, harboring, transportation, provision, or obtaining of a person for the act to be considered as trafficking.

Practically, this means that anyone involved in the recruitment of an individual with the end purpose of exploitation of the individual can be considered as involved in the act of trafficking.

Some recruitment methods used include getting a family member to send another off for a job offer, the trafficker getting involved with a potential victim via a romantic relationship, and/or abduction and kidnapping of potential victims.

The same goes for anyone involved in the harboring - the act of holding and or hiding of a victim, transportation, provisioning - the act of supplying a victim to another person, or obtaining - the act of getting the victim from another person. They can all be charged with human trafficking, provided the other two elements are fulfilled within their interaction period.

Quick side note about transportation. The act of transporting a victim from one location to another DOES NOT need to occur for the act to be trafficking. It is just one of the possible actions that are considered.

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Means.

"a trafficker's action taken through the means of force, fraud, or coercion..."

Force. Fraud. Or coercion.

If a trafficker uses the means of force, fraud, OR coercion then they could be charged with trafficking.

In other words, if someone is forcing another to perform an action by either:

- physical, social, mental, or emotional violence;

- and/or fraudulent actions on the part of the trafficker or traffickers such as lying about a job offer or relationship;

- and/or coercive actions such as threats to harm the victim or their family, threats to report the victim to the police and get them arrested for the acts they perform (such as prostitution which is illegal in most areas of the world), or threatens to withhold access to basic needs, like food or shelter.

Note here on the sex trafficking of minors. This element of means - force, fraud, or coercion - does not have to be satisfied. If they are made to perform commercial sex acts (ie. sex for payment) then they are trafficking victims.

These types of force being force, fraud, or coercion are not mutually exclusive and in actuality often occur together and at different times in the trafficking of an individual.

A woman could be in a relationship with an individual (male or female) where the other individual supports them, gives them gifts, and develops a close relationship. This is a process called "grooming." The relationship appears to be healthy and safe until something happens and the woman tries to end the relationship but is threatened with public humiliation among friends and family, withdrawal of gifts and support, and/or being required to pay back her partner for everything they have done for her. They can then force her to perform an act that they want her to because they have power over her. These threats have put the woman in a position where it is easy for her partner to exploit her for his or her gain.

This situation includes all of the types of means. Force to do what the partner wishes because they created a fraudulent relationship and coerced the woman with the threats.

If she is forced to perform an action by her partner, then the "action" element is satisfied, but unless the last element can be determined the situation cannot be called trafficking or the partner charged with trafficking-in-persons.

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Purpose.

This is probably the easiest element to explain. For this element to be satisfied, the individual in question must have performed the action with the final purpose of the exploitation of another individual.

In the story of the woman, if the partner had had the intention to traffic the woman, then the whole experience could be considered trafficking.

Now, if all of these elements can be satisfied by information from investigations, reports or other sources - then the trafficking charge can be made. However, it is super difficult to prove all three of these elements with testimony and evidence that would allow the case to be brought to trial and prosecution. Especially since trafficking is one of the case types that relies heavily on the story of the experience to gather the evidence to support and satisfy the elements.

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In 2018, the national human trafficking hotline received over 41,000 contacts from various methods which lead to 23,078 survivors being identified and 10,949 human trafficking cases. An amazing feat of reportings as the total number of contacts increased by 25% from 2017.

However, it is important to note that the Polaris Project, the organization that runs the hotline reports that there was an estimated 40.3 million victims of human trafficking throughout the entire world as of 2016 - which is the largest number of trafficking victims at one time in the history of trafficking on Earth.

It can definitely be difficult to believe and understand that human trafficking occurs today, in our modern society, but it does - just as it did back in colonial America, just as it did in the Roman Empire, and just as it did in Ancient Egypt

Within the United States, Polaris estimates that there are "hundreds of thousands of trafficking victims in the US when counting both adults and children as well as both sex and labor trafficking."

And that’s today’s episode, I hope you’ve collected a few ideas and facts about this issue to share with others during this month.

Lastly, check back on tomorrow, December 3rd when I will be presenting a quick history of slavery on our planet Earth.

Love y’all and hope this episode helps make your life a little more conscious.

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Resources used:

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• Polaris Project
  
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  • Is it human trafficking? | Polaris
    
  • Polaris_National_Hotline_2018_Statistics_Fact_Sheet.pdf
    
  
  
  
• National Human Trafficking Hotline
  
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  • What is Human Trafficking? | National Human Trafficking Hotline
    
  
  
  
• International Labour Organization
  
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  • Economics of forced labour: ILO says forced labour generates annual profits of US$ 150 billion
    
  
  
  
• End Slavery Now
  
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  • Forced Marriage | Trafficked Through Marriage - End Slavery Now