January is known as national human trafficking month. This has been ongoing even since 2010 when then resident decided to dedicate the month to raising awareness and educating others to be able to spot and prevent these crimes from happening. 

Human trafficking is a horrific crime that exploits people into forced labor and sex trafficking. Some examples of these are manufacturing, janitorial services, hotel services, and many other services. Many adults and children get caught up in human trafficking resulting in an estimated amount of 26.7 million people being in these trafficking crimes.       

Traffickers use many different ways to lure people that should be looked out for. One of the ways they lure people is through the internet. They often make promises and feed people what they want to hear so they get comfortable enough to meet up with them in person. After they successfully get the person to meet up with them then they kidnap their victim. 

This is an international problem but many countries around the world work to fix this problem by using something called the “3p” paradigm also known as prosecution, protection, and prevention. This helps prevent these crimes, protect people, and to stop further trafficking as it is the fundamental framework that the world uses to fight against trafficking.

It’s just not criminals that are doing these human trafficking crimes, but surprisingly other governments compel citizens into sexual slavery or forced labor. A mass amount of officials abuse their powers to exploit their citizens for more of the government’s gain. These governments did this by threatening to take away public benefits, reducing salaries, and even going as far as threatening to hurt one’s family. In 2019 TVPA or Trafficking Victims Protection Act came to realize that governments had trafficking-funded organizations, sexual slavery, and recruitment of child soldiers. 

Some signs to look out for to spot someone who has been trafficked are if they show signs of controlled movements, have no access to their earnings, have limited or no social interactions, are unable to negotiate working conditions, and have false identities. 

Human trafficking really messes up a victim’s mental health. This trauma develops mental disorders such as emotional numbness, memory loss, depression, anxiety, and more. They may also develop post-traumatic stress disorder or better known as PTSD. The victims may also become dependent on substances such as alcohol to cope with the trauma or they may have an eating disorder.

In 2000 the Trafficking Victims Protection Act (TVPA) arose in the United States to fight against human trafficking. In 2010, President Obama officially made January “National human trafficking month.” In 2023 President Joe Biden showed his support for this month to make sure that this month is well recognized and help put a stop to human trafficking. Today there are 178 parties in the UN Protocol to prevent and punish human trafficking. Despite all of this, human trafficking is still a huge problem that needs the attention of everyone in order to stop it. If you see anything or know anything related to human trafficking contact 1 (888) 373-7888.