How to help fight child trafficking

10 Ways You Can Help End Trafficking

Know the Signs

Learn the red flags and indicators Visit disclaimer page of trafficking. Challenge common myths (PDF) about trafficking with facts.

Report a Tip

Contact the National Human Trafficking Hotline Visit disclaimer page if you have any concerns about a potential trafficking situation. Call 1-888-373-7888, text HELP to BEFREE (233733), or email [email protected].

Spread the Word

Share and display HHS Look Beneath the Surface and DHS Blue Campaign Visit disclaimer page awareness resources in your community. Let everyone know that the National Human Trafficking Hotline Visit disclaimer page is here to help.

Think Before You Shop

Consider how you shop Visit disclaimer page and eat Visit disclaimer page. Who made your clothes? Who prepared your food? Calculate your Slavery Footprint Visit disclaimer page, and know which goods may be produced by child or forced labor Visit disclaimer page.

Tell Your Friends: Demand Fuels Exploitation

The U.S. Government has zero tolerance policies for employees, uniformed service members, and contractors paying for sex. Learn more about the Federal Acquisition Regulations and human trafficking Visit disclaimer page (PDF).

Volunteer Locally

Ask anti-trafficking organizations in your community Visit disclaimer page how you can support them. Perhaps they need volunteers or you could help with an awareness event.

Stay Informed

Sign up for DOJ human trafficking news alerts Visit disclaimer page, follow relevant organizations on social media, read reports as they are released, or check out OTIP’s newsfeed.

Register for Training

OTIP’s National Human Trafficking Training and Technical Assistance Center trains public health professionals and the Office for Victims of Crime Training and Technical Assistance Center Visit disclaimer page supports the criminal justice system.

Use Your Skills

Can you train or hire survivors? Reach out to potential local partners Visit disclaimer page. Do you work in a school? Propose anti-trafficking protocols Visit disclaimer page. Are you an attorney? Offer pro-bono services Visit disclaimer page. Writing a story? Use media best practices Visit disclaimer page. Work in hospitals or clinics? Encourage your colleagues to register for the SOAR to Health and Wellness training.

Raise Your Voice

Ask representatives Visit disclaimer page how they are addressing human trafficking. Let them know what your community needs.

The Fight Against Child Trafficking

What is child trafficking?
Does child trafficking happen in the U.S.?
How many children are victims of child trafficking?
How does trafficking differ from smuggling?
How is Save the Children helping the victims of child trafficking?
When is World Trafficking Day?
Who can I contact if I witness or suspect child trafficking?

What is child trafficking?

Child trafficking is a type of human trafficking. According to the United Nations, trafficking involves three main elements^[iv]:

The act - Recruitment, transportation, transfer, harboring, or receipt of persons.
The means - Threat or use of force, coercion, abduction, fraud, deception, abuse of power or vulnerability, or giving payments or benefits to a person in control of the victim.
The purpose - For the purpose of exploitation, which includes exploiting the prostitution of others, sexual exploitation, forced labor, slavery or similar practices and the removal of organs.

Does child trafficking happen in the United States?

Yes, children are targeted for trafficking in the U.S. and are trafficked into the country from around the world. Often, children are trafficked from developing to developed countries. Victims are trafficked under various circumstances, including prostitution, online sexual exploitation, the illegal drug trade and forced labor.

In the U.S., 60% of child sex trafficking victims have a history in the child welfare system[iv]. Foster children in particular are vulnerable to being victimized by child trafficking[iiv]. Children in the foster care system often live in of the poorest communities in America, where Save the Children works to break the cycle of poverty and ensure that every child gets a healthy start, a quality education, and is protected.

How many children are victim to child trafficking?

An estimated 1.2 million children are affected by trafficking at any given time^[iiv]. Around the world, most children who are victims of trafficking involved in forced labor.
Worldwide:

168 million children are victims of forced labor^[iv]
215 million children are engaged in child labor ^[iii]
115 million of those children are involved in hazardous work ^[iii]

How does trafficking differ from smuggling?

Trafficking and smuggling are terms that are commonly mixed up or considered synonymous. They both involved transporting another individual, but there are some critical differences.

Smuggling involves the illegal entry of a person into a state where he or she is not a resident.

There are three key differences between trafficking and smuggling^[iv]:

Consent – Individuals involved have consented to the smuggling. Trafficking victims either have not consented or have been coerced into consent.
Exploitation – When the smuggled individual arrives at their destination, the smuggling ends. Trafficking is the continuous exploitation of a victim to generate profit for the traffickers.
Transnationality – A person who is smuggled is always brought from one state to another. Trafficking can occur either within or between states.

How is Save the Children helping victims of child trafficking?

Save the Children works to combat child trafficking through prevention, protection, and prosecution. In order to maximize our efforts, we work with communities, local organizations and civil society, and national governments to protect children from being exploited – and to help restore the dignity of children who have survived.

Save the Children takes a holistic approach to tackle the root causes of child trafficking and involves children in the design and implementation of solutions.

Working alongside communities and local and national governments Save the Children supports:

Preventing trafficking at the community level by creating awareness of the risks of migration
Providing support to children who have been trafficked and help them return home and reintegrate into their communities
Improving law enforcement and instigate legal reform to protect survivors of trafficking.

By supporting livelihoods, we help families avoid the need for their children to work. By raising awareness of trafficking, we reduce the number of children being trafficked. By helping rehabilitate survivors, we empower them to rebuild their lives. By protecting unaccompanied refugee children, we keep them from the clutches of traffickers.

We Launch Anti-Trafficking Advocacy Campaigns
With all the excitement that led up to the South Africa World Cup 2010, it is easy to forget that such a major sporting event can lead to child trafficking and unsafe child migration. To help protect children during this time, and raise community awareness of the dangers, Save the Children in Mozambique launched an advocacy campaign called "Open Your Eyes" with radio and television programs, interviews, posters and postcards that reached 250,000 people

The former national team captain, Tico-Tico, even volunteered his own time to appear in several advertisements highlighting the problem of child trafficking. Even after the World Cup was over, this advocacy worked to help protect vulnerable children from exploitation

We Support Public Policy and Training
One reason trafficking and exploitation of children flourish is because of inadequate laws and policies against it. In El Salvador, Save the Children focused on Mejicanos, one of the most frequent areas for trafficking of children, and supported the municipal council in drafting the first-ever ordinance to prevent child trafficking, and monitor its implementation.

Save the Children also conducts awareness training in schools, so children can learn how to keep safe, as well as how and where to report any suspicious activity. Now the majority of Mejicanos are working with Save the Children to share this experience and replicate its success throughout El Salvador.

We Use Research in Creative Ways to Protect Children from Child Trafficking
“Positive deviance” – an innovative approach pioneered by Save the Children and well-documented in improving children’s health and nutrition, is also being used to fight child trafficking. Save the Children used this approach in two child protection programs — one to prevent trafficking in girls for commercial sex work in Indonesia, and the other to reintegrate girls who were abducted by the Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) and girl mothers into their communities in Uganda.

When is World Trafficking Day?

In 2013, the United Nations passed a resolution designating July 30 as World Day Against Trafficking in Persons to raise awareness about the growing issue of human trafficking and the protection of victims and their rights.

Who can I contact if I witness or suspect child trafficking?

The Childhelp® National Child Abuse Hotline – Professional crisis counselors will connect you with a local number to report abuse. Call: 1-800-4-A-CHILD (1-800-422-4453)

The National Center for Missing & Exploited Children® (NCMEC) – Aimed at preventing child abduction and exploitation, locating missing children, and assisting victims of child abduction and sexual exploitation. Call: 1-800-THE-LOST (1-800-843-5678)

National Human Trafficking Resource Center – A 24-hour hotline open all day, every day, which helps identify, protect, and serve victims of trafficking. Call: 1-800-373-7888.

Is it possible to prevent human trafficking?

Evgenia Fedorova Human Rights, Problems 27.01.2021

Photo: Francesco Tommasini / Unsplash

On January 27, the Safe House Social Support Fund for Citizens in Difficult Life Situations held an online meeting on the issue of human trafficking.

9 spoke about how human trafficking is defined in Russia and abroad.0009 Vera Gracheva , OSCE consultant, international expert, president of the interregional movement "Alternative", member of the coordinating group of experts of the Alliance against Trafficking in Human Beings.

What is human trafficking

In 2000, the definition of human trafficking appeared in the Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punish Trafficking in Persons, Especially Women and Children, adopted by the UN General Assembly. Russia has ratified the protocol.

According to article 3 of this protocol, trafficking in persons is “the recruitment, transportation, transfer, harboring or receipt of persons for the purpose of exploitation through the threat or use of force or other forms of coercion, kidnapping, fraud, deceit, abuse of power or vulnerability of a position or by bribery, in the form of payments or benefits, to obtain the consent of a person who controls another person.

Exploitation shall include, at a minimum, the exploitation of the prostitution of others or other forms of sexual exploitation, forced labor or services, slavery or practices similar to slavery, servitude or the removal of organs.”

In other words, human trafficking consists of three elements: actions, means and ends.

The action in this case is recruitment, transportation, harboring. Means - the threat or use of force, deceit, kidnapping, bribery and other ways to force and keep a person. The goal is exploitation.

For example, a typical example of human trafficking: to recruit a person through deception for the purpose of sexual exploitation.

Photo: Jean-Luc Benazet / Unsplash

Exploitation can be more than just sexual. Exploitation is considered to be forced labor, slavery, servitude, and, in general, any forced use of a person.

For example, there are forms that are not indicated in the UN conventions, but are still considered exploitation: this is forced begging, forced petty theft or distribution of drugs.

Vera Gracheva reminds that beggars should not be given money. They will not help, they will be given to criminals. If you want to help, you need to at least talk to a person.

Classical abduction

It is often said that abduction is rather an exception, notes Gracheva. Abductions do happen less than other means of human trafficking, but they do exist.

One day a young man was riding an evening train home. Suddenly, the train stopped between stations, they announced over the loudspeaker: breakdowns on the tracks, please everyone get off. They promised to fit a bus that would take passengers to the station.

The people walked out in a disciplined manner and were seated on the bus. The young man - and not he alone - disappeared. Two weeks later, he managed to call his relatives and say that he did not know where he was, that he was forced to work, that he needed help.

Photo: Wan 1351 / Unsplash

This is a classic kidnapping, says Vera Gracheva. But there are also simpler cases: when children are stolen or abducted from old people's homes.

Provisions of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation on human trafficking

In Russia, human trafficking is also defined as the sale and purchase of a person. This is spelled out in article 127.1 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation.

But the purchase and sale, according to Gracheva, can only be proved when it is the sale of a child, at the time of the transfer of money. In relation to adults, it is practically impossible to identify the sale and purchase, that is, human trafficking itself.

In 2020, a judge of the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation reported that the number of people convicted of human trafficking in Russia has decreased significantly: from 48 people in 2015 to 16 people in 2019year.

Gender inequality

According to the Global Slavery Index,

40.3 million people are now in slavery,

71% of them are women

Photo: Yousef Salhamoud / Unsplash

which men and women have stable differences and corresponding unequal opportunities in society, tells Elena Timofeeva , founder of the Safe Home Foundation, international expert, head of the National Center Against Exploitation and Violence (NCEV) in Sweden.

Only in labor exploitation there are more male victims: 60% versus 40% of women. In the rest - in commercial sexual exploitation, forced marriage and other types of exploitation - women are used more. This is influenced by certain factors, such as the feminization of poverty, unemployment and the patriarchal culture of the family and society.

Photo: Alex Ivashenko / Unsplash

Human trafficking, like other crimes, is unlikely to ever completely disappear, experts say. However, it can be reduced primarily through education.

Recordings of speeches will be available on the social networks of the Safe Home Foundation - VKontakte and Facebook.

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Tags: OSCE, women's and girls' rights, migrants' rights, child trafficking, human trafficking, organ trafficking

NGOs: Non-profit volunteer organization dedicated to the fight against human trafficking and the release of people from captivity: modern forms of labor, beggarly and sexual slavery. , Social Support Fund for Citizens in Difficult Life Situations "Safe House"

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Editor's choice

how to help a person who has fallen into slavery

How people fall into slavery in the 21st century, and what we can do about it.

Alexandra Zakhvatkina Human Rights 03/20/2019

Photo: pixabay.com

The topic of human trafficking concerns everyone, says Veronica Antimonik, program coordinator of the Safe Home Foundation and JewelGirls program . To find out how many slaves work specifically for you, the slave counter helps.

The Foundation prefers to use the expression "human trafficking" because the word "slavery" is associated with ancient times and it seems that the problem has nothing to do with modern people. In fact, this is not so: there are more slaves on the planet now than at any time in the history of mankind.

What is modern slavery

According to the Australian organization Walk Free Foundation, there are now about 40 million people in the world in slavery, of which almost 800 thousand people are in Russia. Most often, women and children become victims of human trafficking: they make up more than 80% of all victims. Every year, according to Veronika, from 30,000 to 60,000 women and children are taken out of Russia for the purpose of sexual exploitation.

In addition to this type of exploitation, human trafficking includes forced labor, forced begging, forced organ trafficking, forced adoption and adoption (when a child is taken from an orphanage for the purpose of sexual exploitation and then returned), marriages for the purpose of exploitation, and forced surrogacy. motherhood. In India, says Antimonik, there are entire clinics-factories where surrogate mothers live.

Human trafficking generates about $150 billion annually. But not always a person is exploited for profit.

Often this is done for the sake of economy: a slave can not be paid a salary and even “hang” mythical debts on him. A man in bondage is scared enough to agree with just about everything.

How a person becomes a slave

It is important to understand: if a person is not paid a salary, but at the same time he can freely leave and write a complaint to the labor inspectorate, for example, this is not slavery. One of the clear signs of slavery is the deprivation of freedom of movement, deprivation of documents and ties with loved ones.

Human trafficking consists of several stages: involvement, transportation, exploitation. At the first stage - involvement - recruitment takes place (increasingly - in the online space), when a person believes false promises and voluntarily agrees to any job. Recruitment is based on deception, but the first step is taken by the victim herself. This first acceptance makes it easier to pressure her later. There is an opinion that people are kidnapped for sale, but this, according to Antimonik, is a myth.

Photo: pixabay.com

Transportation does not always happen, it depends on the demand for a particular type of labor. In addition, the farther from home, the easier it is to control a person - in a foreign culture, without knowing the language and the ability to contact relatives, he will become weaker and obey faster.

Exploitation is the main goal of human trafficking. To achieve it, they use threats, debt bondage, false promises, seizure of documents, withholding salaries, processing, restriction of sleep, food, drink, freedom of movement and communication.

Threats and debt bondage are the most common methods. When a person realizes that he has been deceived and wants to leave, he may be told: “Yes, fine, but we have already spent money on you. Work off your debt and go." The person agrees, but from now on, his debt will only grow: debts for housing, food, medical care, and much more can be added here. Thus, it turns out a debt snowball, getting out of which is almost impossible.

Threats may not be applied directly to the victim, but to his relatives. As a rule, fear for loved ones paralyzes a person, and he abandons attempts to escape.

Who can be enslaved

The main causes of human trafficking are poverty and military conflicts. Often at risk are graduates of orphanages, people with disabilities and those released from places of deprivation of liberty.

Among the places where forced labor can be used, Veronica Antimonik names entertainment venues, karaoke clubs, bars with striptease and consummation (communication with club guests). Often in such places, girls are forced to provide sexual services.

It happens that the institution insures itself and concludes contracts with the girls for another, legal type of work. In this case, everything is clean with them, but when a girl leaves somewhere, she is not protected in any way. Often such girls want to leave, but do not know where to go.

Photo: pixabay,com

Car washes and car services are another area where human rights are often violated, says Antimonik. Safe House had a ward who lived and worked at a gas station and car wash on the highway for seven months. He spoke Russian poorly, and when he tried to ask for help, no one paid any attention to him. Finally, he persuaded some driver to give him a phone, called his mother in Armenia and told him what was happening to him. They saved him.

Also among the “risk” places are small grocery stores. Antimonik cites as an example a store in Golyanovo, which has become a symbol of the inaction of the Russian authorities in the fight against human trafficking. Criminal cases have already been initiated against its owners several times, but the store continues to operate. It is called the "slave-owning economy in Moscow" and reports are written about it.

Most often, forced labor is used in small shadow businesses. In a large network business, there may also be cases of slavery, but they are harder to notice.

How to help a person in slavery

People can remain in slavery for years, as was the case in the same store in Golyanovo. Often people do not realize for a very long time that they have become victims of human trafficking, and until the last they believe that they were simply deceived. Moreover, they may blame themselves for this. Their relatives may also be unaware of the problem for years because the slaves are forced to keep up the legend.

In Russia, there is Article 127.1 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation “Trafficking in Human Beings” and Article 127.2 “Use of Slave Labor”. They exist for a long time, but, according to Veronica, they work poorly, including due to the fact that there is no law that would give a definition, assume the appointment of a national coordinator, prescribe an action plan to solve the problem at the state level, distribute tasks between organizations and departments and determined the allocation of funds from the budget. That is why, according to Antimonik, the police do not always respond to cases of human trafficking.

If you suspect that a person may be forced to work, it always makes sense to talk to him: ask where he is from, how long he has been working here, whether he has an employment contract, whether agreements are respected in relation to him, how he is treated . If he is a migrant, you can ask if he has the necessary documents.

“Most likely, no one will confess right away, but if you bring up this topic and show a person that they can be helped, it will be good,” Antimonik says. No need to go ahead, especially if you see that there are aggressive people nearby. You need to try to make contact with the person. The main thing is that he himself had a desire to be saved.

Often a person who finds himself in slavery does not know where to go even if he is released, and therefore does nothing. In such cases, advises Antimonik, you need to print out a memo with phone numbers and addresses where you can spend the night, have lunch and get further assistance. Such memos were made, for example, by the Mercy help service with addresses in Moscow and the Nochlezhka charitable organization in St. Petersburg.

Sometimes it can be difficult to start a conversation with a person because there will be a controlling person nearby. Then you can quickly and discreetly put the memo in his pocket. It is best, according to Veronica, to ask a minimum of questions, but simply give the person information and, as a result, the opportunity to be saved.

Since 2013, the Safe Home Foundation has been helping people who have been victims of human trafficking. It was founded by Elena Timofeeva and Veronica Antimonik , who have been working in the field of human trafficking prevention since 2003. They participated in the project of the International Organization for Migration (IOM), thanks to which the first and only rehabilitation center for victims of human trafficking appeared. Since 2009, Elena and Veronika began to create preventive programs and help the victims. The Foundation's specialists conduct consultations, trainings and supervisions for various specialists on the topic of violence and human trafficking. Every year, the foundation helps approximately 70 victims of human trafficking and several hundred people at risk.