Odds are, when you think of human trafficking, you picture a young woman just like in “Taken” or the one pictured on the Loquitur’s front page. But in fact, the reality is that “there are an estimated 27 million adults and 13 million children around the world who are victims of human trafficking,” according to Polaris Project.
The preconception of trafficking in persons is determined by the movies, but, in fact, human trafficking has many faces. It could be an au pair caring for children in Disneyworld, a kitchen worker scrubbing pots at your favorite restaurant, a farmworker in the fields of New Jersey or Pennsylvania.
What we see as a reality is actually really blurred. According to Melanie Paccillo, Cabrini Mission Corps member who works for Cabrini Action and Advocacy, human trafficking “includes sex trafficking, labor trafficking and drug trafficking and is the biggest money-making scheme on the planet,” bringing a total profit of $150 billion.
The picture on the front page illustrates just one face of trafficking that could be young or old and from all walks of life.
Human trafficking takes three main forms: including drug trafficking, sex trafficking and labor trafficking and is not limited to those three.
We believe that there needs to be more pressure on the people who create the laws, which we abide by.
Obviously this is a problem and as students we cannot sit idle.
The Polaris Project, the national organization that combats trafficking, lists many ways in which we can take action.
According to the Polaris Project, the top three sex trafficking venues are the commercial front brothels, Internet ads and hotel/motels and the top three labor trafficking industries are domestic work, traveling sales crew and restaurant and food services.
Trafficking has many causes and we must address it in multiple ways. Loquitur believes each of us should study the root causes of the many forms of trafficking and take some positive steps that the Polaris Project recommends to combat this modern-day slavery.
