To combat human trafficking in the United States and globally, the people of the United States, the Federal Government, and State and local governments must be aware of the realities of human trafficking and must be dedicated to stopping this contemporary manifestation of slavery.
Human trafficking is estimated to be a $32,000,000,000 criminal enterprise, making it the second largest criminal enterprise in the world, behind the drug trade.
The United Nations estimates that nearly 21,000,000 people around the world are victims of forced labor, including 4,500,000 people who are victims of forced sexual exploitation.
The Department of Justice estimates that up to 83 percent of sex trafficking victims in the United States are citizens of the United States.
The United States should actively oppose all individuals, groups, organizations, and nations that support, advance, or commit acts of human trafficking.
Human traffickers use many physical and psychological techniques to control their victims, including the use of violence or threats of violence against the victim or the victim’s family, isolation from the public, isolation from the victim’s family and religious or ethnic communities, language and cultural barriers, shame, control of the victim’s possessions, confiscation of passports and other identification documents, and threats of arrest, deportation, or imprisonment if the victim attempts to reach out for assistance or to leave.
Although laws to prosecute perpetrators of modern slavery and to assist and protect victims of human trafficking, such as the Trafficking Victims Protection Act of 2000 (22 U.S.C. 7101 et seq.) and title XII of the Violence Against Women Reauthorization Act of 2013 (Public Law 113-4; 127 Stat. 54), have been enacted in the United States, awareness of the issues surrounding slavery and trafficking by those people most likely to come into contact with victims is essential for effective enforcement because the techniques that traffickers use to keep their victims enslaved severely limit self-reporting.
There is also a general ignorance among the public that human sex trafficking exists. For example the Superbowl is recognized as the largest human trafficking event in the world – that happens right here in the United States.
To its credit the House of Representatives passed 12 anti-human trafficking bills on Thursday, attempting to crack down on the crime days ahead of the Super Bowl, when awareness surrounding the issue gains a larger spotlight. But more still needs to be done.
See related video: Human Trafficking Awareness at the Super Bowl https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I23C47kLBQg
See report: Human trafficking growing as Super Bowl in the Valley nears http://www.abc15.com/news/region-phoenix-metro/central-phoenix/human-trafficking-growing-as-superbowl-in-the-valley-nears