#labortrafficking

How much is the number of those caught in human trafficking in India? As many as 8 million people — that’s about the same as the population of New York City — are affected.

The issue of human trafficking continues to be an issue in India’s region. Among current regions, those living in South Asia and the Pacific are the most likely to be enslaved than people in other regions. It is estimated that most people living under modern-day slavery are united under the Asia Pacific umbrella, making up 62% of these cases.

The recent UN report found that the region made up by Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka had more children affected by human trafficking than any other region except for Sub-Saharan Africa.

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Labor trafficking in India

Sex Trafficking in India

Who is affected by human trafficking in India?

Teen Workers & Children Toil in India’s Mines

Internet scammers are raking in billions from unsuspecting victims globally. In one scam operation based in Southeast Asia, workers would celebrate with drumbeats and chants each time they tricked someone into sending money through dating apps. This grim celebration was witnessed by Jalil Muyeke, a 32-year-old Ugandan, who found himself trapped inside one such compound in Myanmar—not as a scam victim, but as a forced participant in the schemes.

A Fake Job Offer Turns Into a Nightmare

Muyeke's ordeal began when he was lured by a promising job offer that seemed too good to pass up. He had been working as a mattress sales supervisor in Uganda when a former school friend told him about a data entry job in Bangkok offering $2,500 a month. With a baby on the way, Muyeke saw it as an opportunity to build a better future for his family. But what seemed like a chance to improve his life quickly turned into a nightmare.

Upon arriving in Thailand, Muyeke and another recruit were greeted by a series of red flags. Their journey, which should have ended in Bangkok, instead led them deep into Myanmar, where they were taken to a heavily-guarded compound controlled by a Chinese organized crime syndicate. The compound was one of many used to carry out large-scale internet scams, staffed with trafficked workers under the constant threat of violence.

A Life of Scamming Under Duress

Muyeke’s captors specialized in "pig butchering" scams, a con that preys on victims by first building trust—often through online romances—before defrauding them. Muyeke was forced to adopt a fake persona: a fashion designer living in San Francisco, who lured unsuspecting victims into investing in fraudulent cryptocurrency schemes. Like many others trapped in similar circumstances, Muyeke didn’t want to participate in the scams but had no choice. He worked long, grueling hours with no end in sight, fearing the violent consequences if he refused.

Despite the emotional toll of deceiving people, Muyeke clung to the hope of survival. After nearly seven months of captivity, he managed to negotiate his release, convincing his captors to let him take a sick Ugandan woman with him as well.

A Journey to Freedom

Even after being released from the compound, Muyeke’s troubles weren’t over. With no valid visa and little money, he faced the daunting task of escaping Myanmar and avoiding being treated as a criminal by Thai authorities. After turning himself in, he spent several weeks in detention centers before finally returning home to Uganda in April—three months after his son was born.

Rebuilding his life has been a challenge. Crowds and technology trigger traumatic memories, but therapy has helped him begin the healing process. Muyeke now works as an intern researching human trafficking, determined to raise awareness about the dangers of modern-day slavery.

Most people assume that the Thirteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution wholly abolished legal slavery in the United States in any form. The reality, however, is that the Thirteenth Amendment contained one important exception: Prison labor. Those who have been “duly convicted” of a crime can still, legally, be forced to work in this country, and that exception has been a driving force for how our prison system looks today and the mass incarceration of Black Americans. Increasingly, formerly incarcerated people are speaking out about their experiences and asking the anti-trafficking movement to join the fight to improve working conditions and pay, and end forced labor in prisons and detention centers.  Beginning in 2019, Polaris began hosting listening sessions with advocates in the criminal justice reform and immigrant rights movements to deepen our own understanding and identify ways the anti-trafficking movement can support the criminal justice reform and immigrant rights movements to address exploitation in prisons and detention centers. The United States defines labor trafficking as the recruitment, harboring, transportation, provision, or obtaining of a person for labor or services, through the use of force, fraud, or coercion for the purpose of subjection to involuntary servitude, peonage, debt bondage, or slavery. Prison labor often fits this description. All prison labor has some financial benefit to the entity – private or governmental – running the prison. The most common type of prison labor is institutional.  These are the jobs that support the operations of the prison or detention facility. They may include cooking, cleaning, laundry, landscaping, and other jobs. Most of this work is for low pay, on average $0.14-$0.63 an hour, or no pay at all. In many of these jobs, without the use of this free or heavily discounted labor, the facility would need to hire a civilian employee to do the work at market rate. This difference in pay translates into a profit for the state or private company that is incarcerating individuals, creating an incentive to continue incarcerating more and more people. The second type of labor incarcerated individuals typically perform is working for either a state or federal government correctional industry – businesses or corporations run by the government in question that operate in correctional facilities and utilize incarcerated individuals as free or cheap laborers. The type of work can include manufacturing, furniture building, agriculture, making license plates or signs, and making uniforms or apparel. Most products from correctional industries can only be sold to government agencies and non-profits within the state. The exception is for agricultural goods, which can be sold to anyone, including directly to consumers. The third type of labor incarcerated individuals perform affects only a small number of incarcerated individuals (approximately 5,000 nationwide) who work for private companies through a program called the Prison Industry Enhancement Certification Program (PIECP). This program allows private companies to contract with state governments to hire incarcerated individuals to work for them. Large companies such as Victoria’s Secret, Walmart, Microsoft, Starbucks, and Whole Foods have or had products produced with prison labor in their supply chains (typically through subcontractors’ use of incarcerated individuals’ work).

Why is prison labor a problem?

In many cases, incarcerated individuals have no choice but to participate in work programs that enrich the private prison companies or the state or local governments operating the facility. They are mandated to work unless medically unable. The average wage per hour for incarcerated individuals is typically less than a dollar an hour and in several states inmates are not paid at all but still required to work. With criminal justice fees, fines, and paycheck deductions for room, board, and medical facilities, most people who get out of prison wind up owing the government money for their incarceration, making imprisonment a revenue generator. In other cases, prison work programs are “voluntary,” meaning that incarcerated people can choose not to participate. But the choice looks a lot like coercion to people who are in dire financial need or who are threatened with physical harm if they do not perform the work. In prison, for example, a person without any outside source of income would not have the means to put money into their commissary accounts to purchase food, hygiene products, pay for medical visits, or make phone calls. Story after story has emerged from immigrant detention centers where detainees who have not been convicted of crimes have been forced to work to support the operations of the detention center.  Under the threat of solitary confinement, relocation into more violent dormitories, withholding of food or essential supplies like sanitary pads, or other coercive tactics, detainees acquiesce to “voluntary” work. Increasingly, we are learning that the ways in which prison labor is being done by for-profit prison businesses is exploitative, with little consideration given to the exploitation of the incarcerated workers themselves. A number of lawsuits against GEO Group and CoreCivic, the two largest private prison corporations, are now emerging alleging forced labor and human trafficking. In a lawsuit against GEO Group, more than 62,000 complainants have joined a class action suit alleging forced labor in the Aurora Detention Center in violation of the Trafficking Victims Protection Act.  In a lawsuit filed by Project South and the Southern Poverty Law Center against the Stewart Correctional Facility in Lumpkin, GA, CoreCivic is accused of similar violations. Incarcerated and detained individuals’ communication is monitored and this means that it is difficult for them to report abuses or violation of their rights. Even if they could report exploitative working conditions, many protections are unavailable for them as they are not considered “employees” in the traditional and legal sense and therefore are not protected by the Equal Pay Act, the Fair Labor Standards Act, the National Labor Relations Act, or the U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA).

What can be done?

There is some hope on the horizon that things could improve. A recent court decision by the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals held that the Trafficking Victims Protection Act covers the conduct of private contractors operating federal immigration detention facilities. This ruling is a good foundational step but a great deal more work is necessary to uphold the protections afforded by the Trafficking Victims Protection Act to incarcerated individuals in prisons, jails, and immigration detention facilities. State and federal oversight agencies need to ensure that all labor programs within detention facilities, prisons or jails are truly voluntary – that is free from coercion or force. Incarcerated or detained workers should be paid adequately for their work so as to not undermine local employment markets.  Proper safety protocols and worker protections should be put into place to decrease the risk of contracting COVID-19, workplace injury, or death. The United States demonstrates its leadership by condemning regimes and nations that condone or perpetuate forced labor. The U.S. State Department’s annual Trafficking in Persons Report considers state-sanctioned forced labor and prison labor within its grading of anti-trafficking efforts.  And the Department of Homeland Security refuses to allow the import of products into the United States that are the result of forced labor.  As we hold other countries to these standards, we should also look to our own actions, and make the changes we need to at home. To learn more about prison labor:

Fact Sheet: Human Trafficking & Forced Labor in For-Profit Detention Facilities by Human Trafficking Legal Center

Institutional Maintenance in Private Prisons: A Case of Labor Exploitation report by OL Pathy Family Foundation

Prison Labor in the United States: An Investor Perspective report by NorthStar Asset Management

The Kill Line feature by Southern Poverty Law Center on incarcerated individuals working in poultry processing facilities

Prison By Any Other Name: A Report on South Florida Detention Facilities by Southern Poverty Law Center

IMPRISONED JUSTICE: Inside Two Georgia Immigrant Detention Centers report by Project South and Penn State Law’s Center for Immigrants’ Rights Clinic

Prison Legal News: a monthly magazine that reviews prisoners’ rights, court rulings, and news on criminal justice issues. Some of the areas covered include prison labor, the private prison industry, medical and mental health care for prisoners, misconduct, and abuse by prison and jail staff, and settlements and verdicts in lawsuits against detention facilities.

American Prison: A Reporter’s Undercover Journey into the Business of Punishment by Shane Bauer

Human trafficking and the COVID-19 pandemic have something in common: Both take advantage of those most affected by the inequities prevalent in our societies. COVID-19, like human trafficking, can happen to anyone. But they are a lot more likely to happen to people who are already facing other hardships – like poverty, for one. In the case of COVID-19, people living in poverty generally have less access to healthcare and are therefore typically in poorer health. People in poor health are more vulnerable to COVID-19. In the case of trafficking, people living in poverty likely have fewer options available to them. They may have no economic option outside of their trafficking situation to support their families; or they may be more vulnerable to false promises that lure them into trafficking. On COVID-19, we now have hard numbers thanks to a recent New York Times article that shows people of color, particularly Latinos and African Americans, are becoming infected with the virus at three times the rate of their white neighbors. In human trafficking, the data is much less definitive. We have some numbers from specific jurisdictions. For example, we know that in Louisiana, Black girls account for nearly 49 percent of child sex trafficking victims, though Black girls comprise approximately 19 percent of Louisiana’s youth population and in King County, Washington, 84 percent of child sex trafficking victims are Black while Black children and adults together only comprise 7% of the general population. Similarly, we have strong evidence from the U.S. National Human Trafficking Hotline that Latinos are disproportionately represented among human trafficking victims and survivors in general, and labor trafficking survivors in particular. But we lack credible, nationwide numbers we need to prove that while it is true that anyone can become a victim of human trafficking, people of color are disproportionately victimized by both sex and labor trafficking. The underlying system at play in both these arenas is racism and its manifestation as discrimination – particularly, but not solely, economic discrimination.  Racism has fueled policies that stunted the economic opportunity and upward mobility of people of color in the United States for generations. For example, homeownership is a primary driver of family wealth in this country, but racist “redlining,” kept Black families out of majority-white neighborhoods that might have grown in value by keeping them from getting mortgages. The resulting poverty, and the unequal protection of people of color under the law, are key risk factors in determining who gets trafficked and who gets COVID-19. Sex and labor traffickers take advantage of economic need to lure people into situations and trap them there. They promise decent jobs that wind up being nightmares, or convince people who have been cut off from other avenues of economic opportunity that selling sex is the way to a better future. As for COVID-19, while nearly half of Black and Latino workers – 43 percent – have jobs in the service or production sectors that require them to be physically present – and not always socially distant – at work during the pandemic. And few are in a position to quit those jobs out of concern for their health. As this recent CDC look at COVID-19 cases among meat and poultry workers shows, the people in these jobs are often virtually trapped by economic circumstances. By comparison, only about 25 percent of white people hold service and production jobs. That means far more white people can stay home – and stay safe -than Latinos or Blacks and still keep their jobs. While the economic fallout of racism is the most direct connection between why people of color are more likely to be trafficked, and/or get COVID-19 than their white neighbors, it is not the only reason.  Attitudes and stereotypes about Black people (particularly women and girls) make it so that they are more vulnerable to sex trafficking but less likely to be identified or seen as victims. Studies have shown how systemic racism has led to far less access to health care and far more health problems in communities of color – particularly but not only low-income communities of color. The problems – underlying conditions – appear to be among the deciding factors on whether infection by COVID-19 is fatal or not. And many jobs that are directly descendant from historical slavery and typically performed by people of color – such as domestic work – have been purposefully left out of most of the nation’s major labor protections. Similarly, stereotypes or myths about Black people that are prevalent in the healthcare field make it so they’re less likely to receive the same level of care as white people, leading to underlying conditions that make them more vulnerable to COVID-19 and perhaps less effective treatment once they come down with the virus. As the work to dismantle racist structures policies and practices continues, we have an opportunity to simultaneously bring down the systems that enable sex and labor trafficking to victimize Black and Latino people. That means access to equal economic protections – whether you are in a  job that allows you to work remotely, or are an essentially delivery worker, or legal, temporary farm worker. It also means expanded access to social services and safety nets, to educational and training opportunities, healthy food, safe homes, and more.

Last week, the U.S. Department of State released the 2020 Trafficking in Persons or TIP Report. Produced annually, the TIP Report ranks every country on a series of criteria related to governments’ efforts to fight human trafficking. The criteria are defined by the Trafficking Victims Protection Act (TVPA), the U.S. legal framework for fighting sex and labor trafficking. It is primarily a tool of diplomacy, used to help engage foreign governments in efforts to make positive changes that protect vulnerable people and end exploitation. But it is also a good jumping-off point for the United States – which is ranked alongside other countries – to do some much needed self-examination. Even as the United States was awarded a Tier 1 ranking once again this year, we believe there are additional actions the U.S. government can take to further strengthen its response to human trafficking in our own country. The TIP Report grades on three areas of anti-trafficking work: Prevention, protection, and prosecution. There are areas of concern in each:

There is not enough work being done federally to investigate labor trafficking and hold businesses accountable for labor trafficking abuses. Indeed, data from the 2020 TIP Report shows labor trafficking comprises only approximately 5 percent of total federal convictions and prosecutions of human trafficking. 

The TVPA explicitly recognizes that immigration status can create vulnerability to human trafficking and creates a program of “T” or trafficking visas that allow immigrant victims of trafficking to stay in the country and participate in prosecuting their abusers. In recent years, the pace of processing T visas requests has slowed down considerably, leaving many survivors who lack legal status in frightening limbo, unable to find closure and move forward to rebuild their lives. While as recently as two years ago, adjudication wait times for these visas averaged 6-9 months, today the wait time is between 19.5 and 26.5 months. Additional concerns include a decrease in the number of T visas granted to survivors and their family members.

The single best way to end human trafficking is to prevent human trafficking, in part by ensuring that services and supports are available for vulnerable and at-risk populations. As the global pandemic drags on, the need for these services and supports is only increasing. It is vital that our government help ensure that vulnerable people can find safe places to live, as well as medical and behavioral health treatment, food, transportation, and other supports. 

The United States is fully capable of taking these steps, and of being a true leader in the fight to end human trafficking here and around the world. We must commit to doing so, and to maintaining the credibility of the TIP Report in the process.

By Chelsea Dillane, Director of Educational Programming Over the past few months, COVID-19 has traversed the world and impacted the lives of nearly everyone. The virus has attracted the attention of local, national, and international leaders, as global efforts are expected to focus on combating the pandemic. However, with leaders zeroed in on social distancing efforts, treatment for the sick, and other efforts to combat the unpredictable virus, anti-trafficking efforts are being reduced or abandoned. One thing is undisputed – COVID-19 has caused high levels of unemployment around the world. Because of this, individuals are more susceptible to the fraudulent methods of human traffickers. Unfortunately, the more desperate people are for work, the easier it is for traffickers to lure them into trafficking situations. As desperation and vulnerability grow in those that are economically disadvantaged, workers become more likely to experience wage theft and labor trafficking. Exploitative employers are taking advantage of this desperation, enabled by reduced oversight, as authorities temporarily halted labor inspections that otherwise uncover cases of trafficking.

Increased Vulnerability to Labor Trafficking

Regarding specific industries that are currently vulnerable to labor trafficking, Polaris  warns of the vulnerability of individuals working in restaurants, likely because they are working at high rates and earning less money due to the decrease in profits that many restaurants are seeing because of the virus. Further, a legal agency reports recent cases of wage theft in call centers. These cases involve at least thirteen companies with numerous employees. Polaris also describes the vulnerabilities of workers on H-2A visas (temporary work in the agricultural sector), who are known to be vulnerable to human trafficking. Their currently heightened vulnerability is rooted in employers aiming to cut costs and increase output, which often involves exploiting these workers. This harm will be amplified if the Trump Administration’s proposal to decrease these workers’ wages in order to assist farmers is successful. In Southeast Asia, many are compelled to take out loans with incredibly high interest rates, and even use their children as collateral. These loans may be the only option for these families, and traffickers are taking advantage of this by charging unprecedented interest rates that trap families in situations of debt-bondage, a form of labor trafficking. This has also been reported by NGOs working with the UNODC, who have noted the high prevalence of loan sharks at the time. Children are specifically at a high risk for trafficking, as many have been forced to live on the streets, in part due to global school closings. Young adults and children also are spending more time online, as many schools are closed or online and social media is being utilized more often. This increase in online time heightens their vulnerability to online predators that may be planning to exploit people for labor and/or sex and that find ample opportunities to do this via the web.

Increased Vulnerability to Sex Trafficking

Concerning sex trafficking, this decrease in street-based sex work leaves many without a source of income, so some of these workers that are in trafficking situations are forced to make money for their traffickers via webcam work. The executive director of The Freedom Story, an anti-trafficking organization in Thailand, notes this, stating that more minor girls are now engaging in cam work to make money. This is supported by Polaris, who says that some trafficked individuals are being forced to work in web-based sex work at higher rates, as this is in higher demand due to a decreased demand for street-based sex work. Some trafficked individuals that are street-based are even being advertised as ‘virus-free’ in order for traffickers to continue drawing in customers. This neglect of social distancing rules also creates a space for the virus to spread. Polaris also found that some landlords are exploiting their renters to engage in sexual services to compensate for their inability to pay rent. This is another way that sex trafficking is being facilitated by the virus, ensnaring the economically marginalized.

Trapping People in Trafficking Situations

Current trafficked individuals are also being affected by the virus, in that it has caused a global restriction on the freedom of movement. For people in trafficking situations, this restriction makes them feel increasingly stuck in their situations and makes it easier for traffickers to keep their victims hidden. This heightened level of isolation creates more room for victim abuse that goes unidentified. The UNODC reports evidence that domestic violence levels have been rising in many countries. Further, victim identification is also more difficult because of this isolation, thus many victims that would otherwise be identified remain concealed. An FBI agent working in New York stated that there were many human trafficking cases received that referenced the virus, indicating COVID-19’s drastic effect on the illicit market. The Laboratory to Combat Human Trafficking reveals the manipulative tactics used by traffickers to obtain and keep the individuals that they exploit. They may use the universal shortage of jobs as excuses for their exploitation. This tactic, compounded by the lack of other available jobs, compels many workers to remain in these situations despite enduring mistreatment and underpayment of wages.

Neglect of Trafficking Survivors

Trafficking survivors who have exited their situations are susceptible to revictimization. Access to some shelters is being denied to survivors, and other shelters are closing because of COVID-19 infections. Further, many survivors are experiencing a shortage of services in general – specifically housing, healthcare, and legal services. If survivors are unable to obtain help and/or find a job in the formal sector, they may return to their previous trafficking situation or be lured in by another trafficker. A lack of healthcare services leaves survivors at a higher risk of death if they contract the virus. Further, with a lack of legal services provided to survivors as well as the closing of many borders, some have been unable to return to their home countries, despite already long waiting periods to do so. Others are struggling to renew their immigration documents tied to their status as survivors of human trafficking, leaving their immigration status temporarily jeopardized. Additionally, the delay of court cases affects current trafficking situations and survivors alike. Survivors require support now more than ever, but unfortunately their needs are being largely neglected.

Revamping Efforts to Combat Trafficking

Clearly, the global rampage of COVID-19 has been stealthily impacting every facet of human trafficking. Despite acknowledgements of these facts by the international community, resources dedicated to combating trafficking and assisting survivors have been slashed. With countries focusing solely on their internal affairs, international law enforcement communications have become more difficult, resulting in increased difficulty with international law enforcement efforts. This eases the ability of traffickers to operate internationally and take advantage of the economic marginalization wrought by the pandemic. As the virus subsidies, The Freedom Story warned that trafficking-related businesses are likely to quickly crop back up. We cannot allow this virus to destroy efforts to protect vulnerable populations from human trafficking, as they require assistance more urgently than ever before. It is vital for anti-trafficking efforts to continue to receive support for their work, and governments must implement measures to prevent increased human trafficking rates as businesses and society reopen. Edited by Haven Campbell, Director of Communications Photo Credit: FreeRange Stock 

About the Human Trafficking Center

The Human Trafficking Center, housed in the University of Denver’s Josef Korbel School of International Studies, is the only two-year, graduate-level, professional-training degree in human trafficking in the United States. One way graduate students contribute to the study of human trafficking is by publishing research-based blogs. The HTC was founded in 2002 to apply sound research and reliable methodology to the field of human trafficking research and advocacy. Founded in 1964, the Josef Korbel School of International Studies is one of the world’s leading schools for the study of international relations. The School offers degree programs in international affairs and is named in honor of its founder and first dean, Josef Korbel. Note: There is a print link embedded within this post, please visit this post to print it.

By Kelsey Landstrom, Director of Research and Projects The fight to end human trafficking is one of the most unique social movements as its end goal of eliminating all forms of human trafficking is shared universally. However, discrepancies emerge from how to achieve this goal, which has caused divisions amongst the fight and halted momentum. The two most notable camps of the anti-human trafficking movement are the Neo-abolitionists and Human Rights perspectives. Each perspective uses different communication strategies that in turn shapes public attitudes and policies.  Further complications arise when these disputes cause harmful ramifications for those with lived experiences of human trafficking and forced labor. Progress on eliminating human trafficking has been interrupted by conflicts about discourse, faith, and personal responsibilities among the two camps. The Human Rights perspective of human trafficking needs to be reorganized in order to create a unified goal of ending human trafficking while causing as little harm as possible.

The Neo-Abolitionist Perspective

The Neo-abolitionist perspective has dominated the human trafficking narrative with passion filled tactics, including: raid, rescue, and rehabilitate models; demand reduction; directionally motivated reasoning; large scale statistics; explicit images; and call to duty wordage that frames victims/survivors of trafficking as passive victims needing to be saved. Most Neo-abolitionists see their economic and political privilege as a duty to rescue people in human trafficking situations. However, their morally conservative, and often Christian, framework claims that the only form of human trafficking is sexual exploitation of women and girls. This marginalizes all other forms of non-sexual labor trafficking and other vulnerable populations from the public eye and policies.  The majority of state, federal, and international trafficking policies focus on the abolition of ‘sex trafficking’ as it has the moral degradation tag attached. These policies have been shaped by and have further influenced public opinion that human trafficking for the commercial sexual exploitation of women and girls is the most pervasive form of trafficking. The combination of policies, popular media portrayal, and skewed statistics misleads public fear.  The Neo-abolitionist perspective was the first major, passion-fueled wave of the anti-human trafficking movement, but lessons learned from its shortcomings have allowed the Human Rights perspective to emerge.

The Human Rights Perspective

The Human Rights perspective focuses on finding systemic solutions for a systemic problem. This framework acknowledges human trafficking as a result of oppressed and exploited labor to fulfill consumer demand, which must be addressed from an intersectional framework. This perspective notes that the prevalence of human trafficking is far greater than individual scenarios and is inextricable from forced or exploited labor. In order for human trafficking to be addressed, exploited and forced labor must be too, necessitating a critique of our capitalistic and socially stratified world.  The most used tactics include harm reduction, grassroots efforts, secular values, prevention work, and applied research. Human rights organizations’ strategies and visuals are survivor centered, transparent in their methodology, aim to counter stigma and discrimination, and focus on facts and promising practices. How human trafficking is portrayed influences public opinion and knowledge, policies, law enforcement and service providers efforts, and impacts survivors. Narratives that focus on incidences of human trafficking (singular, independent events) paint human trafficking as a series of unfortunate events, not a product of capitalism, racism, and xenophobia. Large scale statistics, such as the Global Slavery Index and International Labor Organization’s data, claim that human trafficking is increasing yearly, but do not acknowledge the increase in research focused on identifying human trafficking. It is not congruent to compare time periods of human trafficking when the measurements have changed.  The messaging and visual strategies by organizations are the first line of raising awareness to the public. As shown, contradicting messages and strategies over one topic causes audience confusion, distress, and sometimes apathy.  If human trafficking is to end, then a unified approach is necessary. In order for the methodology- and survivor- centered Human Rights approach to become the dominant voice, their communication strategies must counter the main converging points of the Neo-abolitionist approach. Below is a chart that outlines Neo-abolitionists’ main arguments and potential counterarguments for the Human Rights perspective. Table 1. Anti-Human Trafficking Movement Messaging and Counter-Messaging

The Next Wave

The anti-human trafficking movement is losing momentum because it is stuck on internal debates over discourse and actions. Studies have shown that the Human Rights approach of survivor-centered, harm reduction, and locally based statistics to be the most promising practices. It is not to lose the passion from the first wave, but to channel it into more ethical, intersectional, and responsible efforts.  The Human Rights counter-messages outlined in Table 1 need to be utilized through multiple methods. First, organizations aiming to raise awareness should be critical of the messages and images published. Second, community-based research methodologies should be implemented and the data produced from research should be presented in appealing, understandable, and accessible mediums. Finally, a cultural change through connection must happen. The attitudes and beliefs of the anti-human trafficking field need to become more encompassing of human rights. Checking the methodology of the information produced is a strong start and can be furthered through open dialogue.  The anti-human trafficking movement desperately needs respectful and compassionate open dialogue between Neo-abolitionists and Human Rights proponents to find sustainable, respectful, and inclusive tactics to reach the common goal: the end of human trafficking and exploited labor. Edited by Haven Campbell, Director of Communications Photo Credit: pixabay

About the Human Trafficking Center

The Human Trafficking Center, housed in the University of Denver’s Josef Korbel School of International Studies, is the only two-year, graduate-level, professional-training degree in human trafficking in the United States. One way graduate students contribute to the study of human trafficking is by publishing research-based blogs. The HTC was founded in 2002 to apply sound research and reliable methodology to the field of human trafficking research and advocacy. Founded in 1964, the Josef Korbel School of International Studies is one of the world’s leading schools for the study of international relations. The School offers degree programs in international affairs and is named in honor of its founder and first dean, Josef Korbel. Note: There is a print link embedded within this post, please visit this post to print it.