What Is Human Trafficking And How Common Is It?

Human trafficking is a form of modern-day slavery that involves the use of force, fraud, or coercion to transport people for forced labor or sexual exploitation. It is one of the fastest-growing criminal industries in the world, with an estimated 25 million victims. 

Human trafficking impacts people globally and has been found in various industries, such as agriculture, fishing, manufacturing, construction, and domestic work.

Healthcare is one of the most important sectors in fighting and responding to human trafficking incidents. In this article, you’ll learn what human trafficking is, its common types, and what you can do as a healthcare professional.

What’s In The Article?

• An Overview Of Human Trafficking

• What Is Sex Trafficking?

• What Is Labor Trafficking?

• How Common Is Human Trafficking?

• Final Thoughts

An Overview Of Human Trafficking

Human trafficking is a crime against humanity that affects millions of people around the world. Unfortunately, it's not always easy to recognize when someone has been trafficked since many traffickers use threats and violence to keep their victims silent and continue exploiting them without anyone knowing what's going on. 

Sometimes, victims are forced into sexual acts or labor without pay. Other times, they may be made to believe they're taking part in legal activities like sex work or farm work when they're actually being exploited. Some people are even sold into slavery by their own families or friends to pay off debts or settle disputes.

What is Sex Trafficking?

Sex trafficking involves using force, fraud, or coercion to exploit a person sexually for profit. Sex trafficking is often referred to as prostitution, which is illegal in most countries, but it's more than that. Sex trafficking occurs when someone is forced or tricked into having sex with multiple people for money.

Sex trafficking victims can be adults born into prostitution and have been abused their whole lives or minors who were abducted from homes and forced into sexual slavery. 

Traffickers may lure victims through false job offers like modeling, dancing, or acting. Once they arrive at the destination city, they are forced into prostitution. There are also cases where children from low-income families are sold by their parents since they can't afford to raise them anymore.

Victims may be locked up in brothels or other locations where they're forced to perform sex acts. Some victims will only be allowed out of those places when there's an imminent threat of being discovered by law enforcement. Otherwise, these people stay locked up indefinitely until they're released back onto the street after paying off their debts, while others escape during raids conducted by authorities.

What is Labor Trafficking?

Labor trafficking involves the exploitation of a person’s labor. It can include forced labor, slavery, and indentured servitude. It is different from sex trafficking since there is no exchange for sexual services. Instead, victims are exploited for their physical labor. It can be forced farm work, mining jobs, or domestic service workers underpaid or not paid at all for their work. 

In some cases, children forced into labor may be used as domestic servants in homes where they’re not allowed to leave at night and aren't paid enough to support themselves on their own.

How Common Is Human Trafficking?

Human trafficking is a crime that affects millions of people every year. The International Labor Organization estimates that 27.6 million people are involved in forced labor, and 22 million are in forced marriage. 

Human trafficking can occur anywhere, but it's most common in regions with large income inequality between rich and poor, low levels of education among vulnerable populations, and inadequate legal systems that protect people from exploitation. 

Most victims lived in poverty before being trafficked. Many have little or no access to education or employment opportunities outside their communities since they live far away from major cities or have disabilities or illnesses preventing them from working.

Human trafficking is indeed a widespread problem. About 600,000 to 800,000 people are trafficked across international borders yearly, and up to 17,500 are trafficked into the US. 

This is a problem that exists both in the US and internationally. According to the National Human Trafficking Hotline, Texas human trafficking ranked second with 670 cases reported in 2016, behind California, which had 1,300. Florida followed Texas with 550 cases. 

Additionally, FBI data shows that there were 1,883 human trafficking cases reported in 2019. However, it's impossible to know the exact number of victims due to reporting limitations surrounding this crime.

Final Thoughts

Healthcare professionals have an important role in combatting human trafficking and helping victims. A study shows that many of them encounter healthcare professionals while held captive.

As a healthcare professional, you should be knowledgeable in identifying victims, responding properly to an incident, and helping the victims to recover.

AchieveCE is an accredited provider of courses for healthcare professionals, which include a human trafficking course. This two-hour online course will allow you to learn everything a healthcare professional needs to know about human trafficking, such as the common techniques used by traffickers, ways to identify possible incidents, and human trafficking prevention.

This issue is more common than you think, but it can take time to identify and understand. The most important thing to remember is that this is not just a problem in other countries or faraway places—it also happens at home.