What is Human Trafficking?

No one likes to think about slavery and when we do, it’s usually spoken of as a type of inhumanity that is well in the past. But slavery is still very much in existence today in the form of human trafficking. Using vulnerable men, women and children for profit continues to be an issue in many countries, including the U.S. The psychological damage, including shame, fear and inability to trust, the victims suffer makes it difficult to rescue them. The threat of physical violence against themselves and their family often keeps them silent and invisible.

Human trafficking is a kind of slavery in which victims are compelled to perform labor or sex acts through force, fraud, or coercion. Fraud usually comes in the form of a false promise for a better life. Traffickers often approach families who are living in poverty offering to take their children to another country where they’ll receive education or a good job. Or the trafficker may set a price for safe passage then order the victim to pay it off once he or she has no way to escape. Some victims are kidnapped. Once enslaved, traffickers use rape, physical abuse, deprivation or drugs to control and condition them. If the prisoner had any travel documents, her captor has taken them, making escape nearly impossible, particularly in a country where the victim may not speak the language. 

Sex trafficking, i.e. forcing a person into prostitution or pornography, gets more headlines but labor trafficking is more common. Victims of labor trafficking can end up in sweatshops, restaurants, or working agricultural, mining, or construction jobs. A child might be forced to beg on the street all day. No matter what the work is, any income goes directly to the victim’s captors.

Displaced people, fleeing their countries to escape genocide, war, natural disaster or violence, are particularly susceptible to human trafficking, due to limited access to safe migration options combined with punitive immigration policies.  Nothing makes a person more vulnerable than running out of choices.

The International Catholic Migration Commission (ICMC) advocates for the rights of all uprooted people, including human trafficking victims. Our efforts include: supporting survivors of sexual or gender-based violence, fostering the integration of migrant survivors of human trafficking, working for better protection of labor migrants, and championing the causes of these often unseen people deprived of basic rights. We need your help to achieve our goals. Visit our website and learn how you can help end this humanitarian crisis.

About the International Catholic Migration Commission

The International Catholic Migration Commission is a nonprofit organization that protects, serves, and advocates for displaced people throughout the world. We help refugees, asylum-seekers, victims of human trafficking, and migrants of all faiths, races, and ethnicities forge lives in safety and dignity.

With support from people like you, ICMC delivers humanitarian aid and social development, protects vulnerable migrants, contributes to refugee resettlement efforts, advocates before governments, and partners with civic leaders. We seek a sustainable solution to dangerous migration and refugee crises.

Find out more by visiting our website.