Human trafficking: the second largest (and quietest) criminal activity

Modern-day slavery, after drug trafficking, is the second-largest criminal enterprise worldwide and generates over $150 billion in annual revenue. Human trafficking is a humanitarian crisis that is often overlooked today. Nevertheless, forward-thinking individuals around the United States are looking to educate the public, raise awareness, and directly combat human trafficking. Mitzi Perdue of the Association of Foreign Press Correspondents recently sat down with Anna Basham, CEO of Anti-Trafficking International, Kristi Wells, director of the Safe House Project, and Rod Khattabi of the Grace Farms Justice Initiative. The educational program conducted over Zoom covered topics such as recent developments in the fight against human trafficking and how political movements affect how well police departments can pursue these crimes. 

Human trafficking is a little-known problem for many people.

There are few large-scale initiatives aimed at stopping human trafficking. The War on Drugs is a household name that has circulated for decades; wars in the Middle East frequently occupy prime real estate on newspapers’ front pages nationwide. The trafficking crisis, on the other hand, earns considerably less airtime. Anna Basham notes that people are shocked to learn that children can be trafficked up to 40 times in one day. Additionally, 80% of rescued kids end up back in the hands of traffickers. However, there is hope for tackling this problem. 

There are clear and actionable steps to combat this crisis.

Basham’s goal is to stop the cycle of rescue, restore, repeat, which sees victims being saved and then very quickly falling back into the hands of their captors. One of the primary ways of preventing this is through educational programs. Kristi Wells notes that it is important for these programs to have input from survivors, as it makes them much more informative. She happily cites a recent development in which the pest-elimination industry was trained to spot signs of human trafficking in the home. These sorts of preventative tactics are also crucial for teachers and law enforcement officials to be able to pick up on subtle signs of abuse in everyday encounters. Once victims have been taken away from their traffickers, they receive shockingly little restorative care. Kristi Wells wants to change that by providing a full continuum of care for minors, starting with expansive safe house networks. These houses offer a stable and supportive environment that can serve as a home base for victims as they seek work and personal development opportunities. The main challenge now is simply identifying enough beds to house the many trafficking victims around the country.  

Social justice movements may limit resources for victims.

Many progressives in the United States are calling for the defunding of police departments as a means of racial justice reform. The outlook of this movement on combating human trafficking is decidedly negative, says Rod Khattabi. As police departments have seen their budgets shrink, the first things cut are specific task forces that oversee human trafficking. Police training also takes a big hit following budget cuts. Thus, the “defund the police” movement may be hurting the victims of trafficking by taking away resources that help put their captors behind bars. It is imperative that domestic and international journalists follow this crisis, and there are several different lenses through which to pursue this topic.