International demographics and statistics./ general trafficking info

Human trafficking is present throughout the globe — according to the United Nations Office of Drugs and Crimes 2016 Global report on Trafficking in Persons, there are over 500 different routes that victims of trafficking have been known to be taken through. These victims are taken from their homes to other cities, states, and often across international borders.

Internationally, Trafficking does not discriminate against age, race, or gender. Although the majority of trafficking victims are still women, in recent years, the demographics have shifted towards larger numbers of men and children, as rates of different forms of trafficking shift over time.

Though sexual exploitation is one of the most common and widely known forms of human trafficking, in reality, trafficking is used for a variety of nefarious purposes — including the removal of organs, forced labor, selling children, forced marriage, and forced begging.

Source: https://www.unodc.org/documents/data-and-analysis/glotip/2016_Global_Report_on_Trafficking_in_Persons.pdf

The Anti-slavery international organization has a huge grounding on a local level due to their history, being the first anti-slavery organization in the world. Considering, they have nearly 200 years of experience, they have many other organizations they are aligned with to fight issues of slavery. We are focusing specifically on human trafficking within this foundation, and how they fight this on a global scale. It is important to note these connections with other organizations, because without local perspectives, the organization itself would not be able to function on a global scale. Financially, Anti-slavery international has forty-four major funders. One third of their funding comes from their members, who consist of a lot of faith based organizations.

Out of all of the funding for the organization eight percent is placed directly towards human trafficking, which includes, prostitution, forced labor, domestic servitude, forced marriage, and so much more.

To work on a global scale, they also must be held accountable for the resources used and progress made. In order to do this they publish their projects and evaluations as soon as they are complete. They also have a list of policies in place that are listed on their website, a few examples are the open information policy, equal opportunities policy, and the bribery and corruption policy. The global approach made by the organization is to enable people to leave their traffickers.

According to the Washington Post on the subject of sex trafficking, “Sex trafficking to the United States is estimated to bring 50,000 women and girls to our shores each year, mainly for prostitution.”

Most human trafficking operates cross-borders, but most governments and organizations continue to struggle with cross-border collaborations. If these efforts are achieved, the global safety net for survivors of human trafficking could be strengthened. The main tactics that traffickers use to intrigue or lure in people is the language barriers or the lack of knowledge that the individual has towards their own legal rights.

Many organizations are tackling this issue by attempting to create relationships between countries and regions. This way they are able to exchange information towards statistics they hold on the issue and connections could be established. This new information could potentially help law enforcement pinpoint strategies that the traffickers could be making cross-borders.

In efforts to initiate a conversation about this growing issue, many organizations have created impactful posters and advertisements that display more emotion towards the subject.

That being said, their efforts were more directed towards how the culture that they are attempting to impact. In several countries, sex trafficking has impacted many families that then return back to their own families to recruit some of their own family members. Then the recruitment becomes more of a family endeavor that makes it harder to break the linkage of trust that it establishes.  

In the U.S, human trafficking tends to occur around international travel-hubs, with a large Immigrant population, specifically California and Texas. The U.S. Justice Department estimates that 14,500–17,500 people are trafficked into the country every year.

North America detects that females are the main victims. About 60% of the approximate victims detected across the region whose age and sex profiles were reported were females.

In addition, adults are roughly 81% more victimised than children, where 60% are female victims and 21% are male.

Although there are multiple different forms of trafficking globally and nationally, specifically, this graph show that 55% of trafficking is for sexual exploitation, following 39% for forced labor and 6% for other unclassified reasons.

America and the Caribbean, who were neither trafficked domestically nor between neighboring countries, were mainly trafficked from origins less than a few hundreds miles from the border of the country where they were detected. Most of these victims were from South America.

The main destination for human trafficking is the United States in terms of South and Central America.

https://www.unodc.org/documents/data-and-analysis/glotip/2016_Global_Report_on_Trafficking_in_Persons.pdf

What is being done

The Trafficking Victims Protection Act (TVPA) was authorized in 2000 and was the first federal law to address sex trafficking and labor trafficking in the United States. The TVPA focused on the prevention and protection for trafficking survivors, as well as prosecution for traffickers, taking its ideals from the foundations of NGO’s anti-slavery international.

The TVPA was reauthorized multiple time, each reauthorization offered positive changes. For example, the TVPRA of 2008 required the Department of Labor to publish a list of products produced by child labor or forced labor. But the TVPRA expired in 2011, and is in need of an update to keep up with the rapidly evolving landscape of human trafficking.

This past year, a bill to reauthorize the TVPRA has been reintroduced to Congress. It holds government contractors accountable for using foreign labor recruiters that use exploited labor, helps law enforcement prevent and prosecute sex tourism, and creates a grant-making program to prevent trafficking in humanitarian crises (such as in the case of Haiti or Syria).

On the state level, while there has been vast improvement in some legislation, a few states have a long way to go. Massachusetts, rated one of the most improved states by the Polaris Project , created a Human Trafficking Task Force, which strengthens protections for victims of trafficking and makes using the internet as a trafficking tool a punishable offense.

On the other hand, there are states like Wyoming, where until 2013, no state law existed to punish traffickers. Wyoming joins the ranks as the last state to ban human trafficking with Governor Matt Mead signing the first anti-trafficking law in Wyoming, making it illegal to traffic individuals for commercial sex or forced labor.

https://www.themuse.com/advice/whats-being-done-to-stop-human-trafficking

Local and State effort to end Human trafficking

    “Abolition Now” is a Portland based human trafficking organization promoting advocacy, aftercare, awareness, prevention, and outreach. They rely on those five pillars to conduct themselves in a consistent and caring manner. Here’s how they all break down:

• Advocacy – “Advocacy seeks to change policy by creating and changing laws, affecting public opinion, and strengthening the community factors and judicial systems that will deter trafficking.”
• Aftercare – “Aftercare programs attempt to address both the immediate and long- term needs of each victim of trauma. These services may include residential facilities, medical and mental health care, education, job training and economic development programs.”
• Awareness – “Organizations that focus on awareness are seeking to educate the public on the scope of human trafficking locally or internationally. Awareness is based upon the premise that you need to know the problem to solve it.”
• Prevention – “Effective action to prevent trafficking in persons requires a comprehensive approach, including measures to prevent trafficking, to protect victims of such trafficking and to prosecute traffickers.”
• Outreach – “Strictly speaking organizations that focus on rescue are those groups that actively work to free victims from slavery.”

In addition to their five pillars, their motto, “Get informed and get involved,” is very important to their vision as a human trafficking awareness group! They believe that these pillars cannot be erected in communities without being informed and without being involved. Abolition Now prides themselves on their devotion to the Christian faith, which drives much of their work. Although their advocacy is heavily religious based, their reach is commendable. They work locally, nationally, and internationally with NGO’s and government programs consistently and productively. In addition to being connected to the church they connect groups of organizations, churches, and even government groups that work together to end human trafficking. Abolition Now is the face and central force that drives these organizations and keeps them interconnected. They encourage everyone in every community to get involved. They are located in Portland but also work with statewide, nationwide, and global agencies to ensure progress and social change.

Abolition Now: How They Started and Why They Exist

    The organization of churches and other advocacy groups took hold in 2009, but it wasn’t until 2011 that they officially came together as Abolition Now. In between the inception and official networking of the web of advocacy groups, the Adorned in Grace Bridal Shop was opened in 2010 which raises funds and awareness for the prevention of human trafficking. Their existence in Portland can be attributed to its vile reputation of being a sex trafficker’s dream. There are reports of men, women, and youth being trafficked, rescued, or killed because of trafficking every single day in the Portland area and across Oregon. Their existence is necessary to save lives, rebuild those who have been abused, and to break the cycle of human trafficking in Portland and Oregon in general.

Portland/Oregon Human Trafficking Statistics

    Although Abolition Now focuses on sex trafficking, there is a small number of labor trafficking reported. In 2016, there were over 300 calls made to report human trafficking and 72 cases opened. The number 72 may seem small, but the cases opened often involve multiple people, across multiple ethnicities, genders, and backgrounds. For the privacy of those individuals this information is not recorded publically. https://humantraffickinghotline.org/state/oregon

Like previously stated, sex trafficking makes up a majority of cases in Oregon.

In instances of reporting, community members and victims top the chart for callers.

Abolition Now is coming to campus!

Want more ways to get involved? Follow Abolition Now on Twitter! Twitter: @AbolitionNowPDX

Or visit their website to browse their affiliates! http://abolitionnow.com/

http://abolitionnow.com/get-informed/events