Forced Labor
Forced labor occurs when a person is coerced to work in any labor situation for negligible or no pay. It can be found in many different areas: mines, factories, farms, fishing boats, homes, restaurants, and other areas. It is prevalent in the production of the raw materials that create the things we use daily, such as the minerals in our phones and electronics, the cotton in our clothing and the crops that become our food.
People in forced labor are often subjected to severe physical and psychological abuse. Threats, violence, and sometimes physical isolation, such as work on a remote farm or on a boat at sea, keep them from leaving their employer.
Traffickers often seek out children for forced labor because of their ability to perform tasks such as to climb trees to pick cocoa, fit into small areas to mine minerals, weave a rug quickly on a loom, or untangle fishing nets caught under water. They are obedient, vulnerable, and their wills are easily broken.
Forced labor is often interwoven with sex trafficking. Women in forced labor are also typically sexually exploited and abused, and are often forced to also work as prostitutes.
Victims of forced labor are usually from impoverished communities, and may have families struggling with health and nourishment issues. They are frequently illiterate or are coerced into signing contracts in foreign languages that they cannot understand. Traffickers take full advantage of their desperation for work.
DEBT BONDAGE
A common form of forced labor is called debt bondage. Many people who are trafficked are told they owe money to their employer, broker or trafficker, and that their work will pay off this debt, after which they will begin receiving their income.Traffickers tell victims that they owe incredible amounts, claiming expenses for travel, tools to work, medical expenses and exorbitant broker fees. These falsified debts are accompanied by inflated interest rates, which ensure that the victim will never be able to pay and may lasts for generations.
Domestic Servitude
Victims of domestic servitude live and work in someone’s home without pay. They may clean, cook, drive, care for children or for the elderly, and perform other household tasks. Frequently the domestics are from foreign countries, and before they make the decision to live in the household that will employ them, they are told that they will receive a good income. Instead, they receive little or no pay, and are often kept captive in the house they tend to. Their passports are typically confiscated, and they are told that if they run away they will be deported or arrested. Language barriers add to the helplessness and fear in the case of foreign victims.
Brutal abuse often occurs in the case of domestic servitude. Frequently there is sexual abuse, as well as physical, emotional and psychological. Victims may be forced to sleep on the floor and denied adequate food. They are forced to work from dawn until deep into the night. These conditions and treatment remain in the privacy of the home, leaving the victim completely isolated.
The most common way these victims are saved is by a neighbor or acquaintance who notices the warning signs of this form of slavery. Domestic servitude exists everywhere, from the suburbs of Long Island to Saudi Arabia, from India to Singapore.
If you think someone you have been in contact with is a victim of domestic servitude in the United States, call the National Human Trafficking Hotline, 24/7 for help and information:
NATIONAL HUMAN TRAFFICKING HOTLINE
1-888-3737-888
KNOW THE SIGNS
- Domestic workers who are rarely allowed out of the house, unless their employer or a guardian is with them
- Domestic workers whose identification/passport are held by the employer
- Domestic workers who are subject to abuse, insults, threats or violence
- No private space or a place to sleep, sleeping on the floor or sofa
- Evidence of a poor diet
- If the worker is a child: poor attendance at school/no access to education, and no time allowed for recreation
Sex Trafficking
Sex trafficking is a worldwide crime that affects children, women and men of every age. It is prevalent whether a country considers prostitution legal or illegal. Victims are controlled by rape, trauma, brutal violence, threats, forced drug addiction, and psychological manipulation.
The United States Government defines sex trafficking victims as people who are forced to engage in commercial sex, and children under the age of 18 who engage in commercial sex. Victims are forced to work in a variety of locations, including residential brothels, escort services, massage parlors, strip clubs, truck stops and the street. Their services are frequently found advertised on Craigslist, other online venues, in magazines and in newspapers.
People targeted by sex traffickers are often young, but can be any age. The average age of prostitutes around the world, and the average age of entry into prostitution in the USA is 13 years old. Some victims travel to foreign countries in search of a legitimate job and are forced into prostitution; in other instances, the victim is deceived in the same city of their birth.
Traffickers prey on a victim’s hope for a better life. Most victims are vulnerable to trafficking due to pre-existing conditions in their lives, such as poverty or abuse. As in all forms of trafficking, victims are often trafficked by someone they know: a family member, an acquaintance, or a new “boyfriend”. The conditions they come from can make it difficult to escape trafficking situations, as they often have nowhere to turn. This is compounded by the psychological damage that enduring sexual abuse produces.
The trauma that victims of sex slavery experience makes recovery a challenging, complicated path. Organizations work tirelessly to provide shelter, food, medical treatment, psychological treatment, education, job training and more for victims.
POLICE TRAINING
Police training is a crucial component to ending sex trafficking. Frequently in the United States, victims of sex trafficking are only recognized as engaging in prostitution, and are arrested instead of assisted, despite the laws that exist to protect them. On average, victims of sex trafficking in the US are arrested 2 ½ times before it is recognized that they are trafficked.
Other Forms of Slavery
Slavery is a sprawling industry that has no boundaries, and can appear in many forms aside from the most common manifestations of forced labor, domestic servitude and sex trafficking. Victims of more unusual or circumstantial forms of slavery can be forced to fight in wars; beg on streets; give performances; to work in restaurants, janitorial jobs, beauty salons-to do anything that will financially benefit their traffickers.
As with all forms of human trafficking, atypical embodiments can be difficult to identify. Victims are subjected to the same threats and coercion to remain hidden. Victims can be imprisoned in countries they have never been to before, or in the town where they were born.
WAR CHILDREN
In wartime, children can be forced to fight against their will by armies and warlords. During Uganda’s 20 year long civil war, many children were taken as “war children”, and forced to fight in the country’s civil war by members of the Lord’s Resistance Army. War children are frequently abducted from their homes against their family’s will, and are terribly abused physically and psychologically. Frequently, they are forced to take drugs, which desensitizes them to the horrible acts they are surrounded by, and that they are forced to commit. They are subjected to the brutality of war, and are forced to inflict violence on others, including those they love. The girls taken are typically raped and subjected to other sexual abuse.
Know The Signs
In the majority of human trafficking cases, victims are afraid that if they reach out for help they will be abused by their trafficker, or punished by authorities. It is crucial to know the signs of human trafficking, and to notify the U.S. National Human Trafficking Hotline if you see a potential victim:
NATIONAL HUMAN TRAFFICKING HOTLINE
1-888-3737-888
IDENTIFYING FORMS OF SLAVERY
While not an exhaustive list, these are some key red flags that could alert you to a potential trafficking situation that should be reported:
- Living in poor conditions with employer
- Inability to speak to individual alone
- Signs of physical abuse
- Submissive or fearful
- Multiple people in cramped space
- Answers appear to be scripted and rehearsed
- Employer is holding identity documents
- Unpaid or paid very little
- Under 18 and in prostitution
QUESTIONS TO ASK
Assuming you have the opportunity to speak with a potential victim privately and without jeopardizing the victim’s safety because the trafficker is watching, here are some sample questions to ask to follow up on the red flags that alerted you:
- Can you leave your job if you want to?
- Can you come and go as you please?
- Have you been hurt or threatened if you tried to leave?
- Has your family been threatened?
- Where do you sleep and eat?
- Are you in debt to your employer?
- Do you have your passport /identification? Who has it?
Identification Training
Recognizing cases of human trafficking is essential to helping victims, and often doesn’t happen. Training for police, hospital workers, teachers and others to identify all forms of human trafficking is available from highly regarded NGO’s, including the following:
Polaris Project (Washington D.C.)
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