Tag: slavery

Earlier this year the nonprofit organization Polaris, which fights human trafficking, published a blog post about human trafficking rumors. In it they wrote:

Over the past week, the National Human Trafficking Hotline has received hundreds of reports referencing social media posts claiming online retailer Wayfair is part of a complex child sex trafficking scheme. These reports come from concerned citizens who learn of something unspeakable and feel compelled to act. Unfortunately, the Wayfair situation in many ways echoes the Pizzagate conspiracy in 2016, which resulted in violence and barely-averted tragedy. What we learned at that time was that unsubstantiated claims and accusations about child sex trafficking can spin out of control and mislead well-meaning people into doing more harm than good.

– Polaris

The problem?

First, when people call human trafficking hotlines about rumors, that misuses the organizations’ resources. Beyond that, rumors get in the way of the actual truths about human trafficking. Finally, when people believe the rumors they read without verifying facts, they sometimes harm innocent people in their rush to execute what they believe is justice.

Here’s what you need to know about child sex trafficking

• Sex traffickers rarely kidnap children. Instead, they seek vulnerable children and teens and convince them that they care.
• The children most likely to be trafficked are in situations that leave them vulnerable to oppression or abuse. They may be runaways, experiencing domestic or sexual abuse at home, living in poverty, or addicted to drugs and alcohol. They are more likely to be LGBTQ+ youth or people of color.
• Children and youth are most likely to be trafficked by someone they know, such a family member or someone they’re dating.
• Youth may be approached on social media by someone who claims a romantic interest in them, or they may respond to a job offer that isn’t legitimate.

Source: Polaris – “What We Know About How Child Sex Trafficking Happens,” “Recognizing Human Trafficking: Vulnerabilities and Signs of Recruitment,” and “On-Ramps, Intersections, and Exit Routes: A Roadmap for Systems and Industries to Prevent and Disrupt Human Trafficking”

What can you do?

Wanting to stop human trafficking is a noble impulse. Here are some tips and helpful resources:

• If someone shares information with you about child sex trafficking, check the facts before you spread the word. Polaris has a page dedicated to popular rumors regarding child sex trafficking.
• Educate yourself about slavery. Visit the websites of well-established nonprofits that fight human trafficking, such as:
  • Polaris, which has operated the U.S. National Human Trafficking Hotline since 2007;
  • International Justice Mission, which partners with local authorities in 13 countries to combat slavery, violence against women and children, and police abuse of power against people who are poor;
  • Free the Slaves, founded in 2000 to change the conditions that allow modern slavery to exist;
  • Stop the Traffik, a 14-year-old, UK-based organization that uses an intelligence-led approach to prevent human trafficking;
  • Freedom United, a global organization that focuses on awareness, education, and mass action to end slavery; and
  • A21, an organization that works to reach people with information on human trafficking, offers rescue services such as hotlines and legal assistances for survivors, and provides restorative services, such as survivor relocation and aftercare.

You will notice that the focus of these organizations goes beyond child sex trafficking. That is because child sex trafficking is only part of the slavery that exists worldwide; in fact, forced labor accounts for at least 50% of modern slavery. (See note below for more information on this figure.)

• Donate to nonprofits that fight slavery, such as the ones I mentioned above. It’s not a good idea to take matters into your own hands, as the man who followed through on his concerns about alleged sex-trafficking at Comet Ping Pong learned.
• There are other actions you can take. For instance, if you take pictures of your hotel room and upload them to the TraffickCam app, these pictures may allow investigators to identify rooms used in advertisements for people who are being trafficked for sex. I encourage you to go directly to the organizations I mention above to look for ways you can work to stop human trafficking. My blog also offers a few ideas (search for “slavery”).

Note: In April 2019, I stated “81% of slaves worldwide are forced to provide labor” — a figure that is significantly different from the one cited above. One reason for this is that it can be hard to get accurate statistics about slavery, since slavery is illegal and therefore tends to be hidden. In addition, I have cited two different sources for these figures. Free the Slaves, which provided the statistic stating that forced labor accounts for 50% of modern slavery, counts forced marriage as a form of slavery, accounting for 37.5% of worldwide cases of slavery. The information I found that states that 81% of slaves are involved in forced labor was from Polaris’ website; I can no longer find that information on their site. Including or not including forced marriage as slavery could affect statistics on the percentage of slaves who are forced to provide labor.

When I say “human trafficking,” do you think specifically of trafficking in the sex industry?

For many years, I thought human trafficking had to with forcing women and children into prostitution. Since I don’t use prostitutes, I thought I couldn’t really do anything about the problem.

I was wrong on two counts. First, there are things you can do to fight human trafficking in the sex industry, including taking photos of your hotel room.

But I was also wrong about what “human trafficking” means. Human trafficking isn’t confined to the sex industry; you can find victims of trafficking in many different industries. In fact, 81% of slaves worldwide are forced to provide labor, which can include domestic work, agricultural work, manufacturing labor, and much more.

When I realized that some of the goods I purchased were produced by slave labor, I became a lot more interested in the issue of human trafficking.

Given my personal experience with learning more about human trafficking, I’m distressed by the number of organizations, particularly Christian organizations, that focus exclusively on sex trafficking. Perhaps I’m wrong about how many organizations have such a focus. But I’m not the only person who thinks that U.S. evangelicals focus more on sex trafficking than on labor trafficking.

To be fair, sex trafficking is more common in the United States than labor trafficking  Organizations that focus on local human trafficking may focus on sex trafficking for that reason.

But an exclusive focus on sex trafficking reinforces the picture many people have of evangelicals: They’re people who are obsessed with sex while turning a blind eye to injustice. Anti-trafficking organizations would do well to increase their focus on labor trafficking. What if these organizations encouraged us to think about buying more fair-trade goods? What if they helped us realize that the people putting up siding in our neighborhoods could be victims of human trafficking?

Sex trafficking is a serious issue. We should by no means ignore it. But it’s time for more abolitionists to shine a light on labor trafficking. We can’t stop it if we don’t know about it.

For people who love to shop, “fast fashion” — cheap, trendy clothing — allows them to indulge in the shopping experience more frequently. For those of us who don’t enjoy shopping, the opportunity to buy inexpensive new clothes helps us save money without having to put in the effort to find good clothing at secondhand stores.

But the cheap, on-trend items that we buy now and discard in a year or so are problematic. First, there are environmental costs to fast fashion. Clothing factories dump harmful chemicals, such as toxic dyes, into waterways. Fabric and clothes are shipped long distances in order to take advantage of cheap labor. Much of the clothing we buy is made using synthetic fabrics, which shed microfibers every time we wash our clothes. Too small to be trapped during wastewater treatment, these fibers end up in our waterways… and the food chain. And worn-out and out-of-date clothing often ends up in landfills at the end of its (short) lifespan. Synthetic materials in particular take a very long time to break down.

So part of the solution is to buy natural fabrics such as cotton, right? Unfortunately, it’s not that easy. Conventional cotton growers use a disproportionate amount of pesticides, exposing farm laborers to toxic chemicals. Growing cotton also requires lots of water. Organic cotton is a better choice. Wool is also a good choice, but there are drawbacks, including — again –water usage. Silk is fine, though it may disturb you to know that silk production is harmful to silkworms and moths. Bamboo sounds great — after all, it grows like a weed — but the fabric production often requires a lot of chemicals. In addition, bamboo’s growing popularity may be encouraging unsustainable farming practices. Producing linen from flax can contribute to water pollution. Hemp is a sustainable choice, but it can be challenging to find. It’s even more difficult to find unusual fabrics made of things like stinging nettles and coffee grounds.

In other words, some fabrics are better choices than others, but virtually all choices have some drawbacks. It’s best to limit our purchases altogether.

Fast fashion isn’t just bad for the environment; it’s bad for laborers. In many cases, the people who work in clothing factories receive extremely low pay to work under dangerous conditions. When factory fires occur, workers may be trapped inside the building. Fires aren’t the only danger to workers. In 2013, 1,134 people, including garment factory workers, died when the building they worked in collapsed. Even in U.S. factories, workers may be paid well below minimum wage. In some cases, our cheap clothing is the product of slavery. Slaves may pick the cotton that goes into our clothing — another reason to be careful about selecting cotton clothing. You can also find slavery in garment factories, both overseas and in the U.S.

What can we do about this?

The most important thing we can do is to buy only what we need. If you enjoy shopping for clothes, you can still do that, but you will be doing it less often. That means you’ll need to find some substitutes for that dopamine hit you get when you go shopping. Donate to charity, do an act of kindness, exercise, spend less time on your computer and more time sleeping, listen to music, take up meditation. I know this is easy for me to say as someone who hates shopping, but buying less is a very effective way to change things.

Need clothing but don’t have a lot of money? Buy used instead of going to [name of your favorite fast fashion store here]. I confess this advice is hard for me to take. Shopping online or in a store is so much easier than shopping in thrift stores or consignment shops. If you find a top you like but the size you picked doesn’t fit, you can usually get the same item in a different size if you’re buying new. In used clothing stores, you’re out of luck. Nevertheless, it’s far better to save money by buying used clothing than buying clothing that contributes to human suffering and the destruction of the environment.

If you have the money and don’t want to buy used clothing, purchase high-quality clothing that’s made to last. Look for organic, natural fibers and fair-trade garments whenever possible. Again, I know this isn’t easy. Sustainable fashion has come a long way from the dumpy Earth Mother look of the ’90s, but our choices are still fairly limited. Nevertheless, there are an increasing number of clothing companies out there with an ethical focus — and they don’t all charge an arm and a leg for their clothing, though the clothes will cost more than fast fashion. Consider retailers such as Fair Indigo, Indigenous Designs, and Mehera Shaw.

It can be challenging to purchase a sustainable wardrobe. Although I have made sustainable purchases, I’ve also made plenty of conventional purchases simply because it was easy. But every time we choose not to buy clothing we don’t need, or to spend a little time and/or money on making a sustainable purchase, we’re taking a small step toward changing the world for the better.

I’ve written about modern slavery, or human trafficking, before. I’ll continue to do so, because fighting slavery is important to me. There are many different actions we can take in the fight against slavery. The most important thing we can do is to value victims and survivors of human trafficking.

Stop Blaming People Who Have Been Enslaved

We shouldn’t blame people who have been enslaved for their situations. We should blame those who have chosen to enslave others.

Kanye West was speaking about historic slavery — not modern slavery — when he said that slavery was a choice, but that statement insults both people who were enslaved in the past and those who are trafficked now. When people view slavery as a choice or embrace the notion that people “create their own reality,” they show a lack of respect for those who have been used by people who are ready to oppress others for their own gain. Victims of human trafficking are people who are struggling. They try to make the best choices they can with the resources available to them. They choose whatever they think will help them survive. That’s not the same as choosing slavery.

We also frequently fail to support victims of trafficking through law enforcement. Although the United States is getting better about not charging people who are coerced into prostitution, there are still far too many instances in which these people are jailed. Sometimes they are imprisoned to force them to cooperate with an investigation, or even because appropriate help is not available.

And because many victims of human trafficking are undocumented workers, the recent crackdown on illegal immigrants in the U.S. can discourage people from seeking help.

Start Thinking Beyond Escape

It’s important to think beyond helping people escape slavery, wonderful as that moment of freedom may be.

As one human trafficking survivor points out, people who have been enslaved lack resources. They may need education or access to counseling, health care, and financial assistance. They certainly need jobs. And they need to be fairly compensated for their contributions toward fighting slavery.

Entrepreneurs might want to start businesses that are designed to provide new job skills to survivors of human trafficking. The rest of us can help out by buying from businesses that employ these survivors.

Listen to Survivors

In 2016, the U.S. government released its first-ever report on human trafficking based on significant input from survivors. The U.S. Advisory Council on Human Trafficking put together a list of ways to fight slavery, including improving anti-trafficking training, increasing awareness of human trafficking, providing comprehensive services to survivors, and protecting vulnerable workers.

Survivors of human trafficking have escaped situations in which their human dignity was not respected. We dehumanize them again when we take the attitude that we know better than they do. Survivors are not poster children to be trotted out when we need a good example of what slavery looks like. If they choose to be involved in the fight against trafficking, we need to invite them to be full participants in our discussions about slavery. And when they speak, we need to respectfully listen. (Much of what I’ve written in this paragraph was inspired by a resource from The Advocates for Human Rights, which includes advice from women who are survivors of sex trafficking.)

It’s easy for those of us who are privileged to think we’ve attained these privileges solely due to our merits. It’s a simple step from there to placing ourselves in a “savior” type of role. I know I’ve done that many times. But when we try to solve people-centered problems like human trafficking (and other forms of oppression), we need to be humble enough to take an approach that is not centered on ourselves and our own ideas — no matter how good they may be — but instead take an approach that focuses on the people we wish to serve.

 

 

I’m not proud of this, but I am a suspicious person by nature. Many years ago, my husband and I were at a state park, and a very friendly man who was there with his family stopped to chat with us. Too friendly, I thought. Bet he’s trying to recruit us for Amway. (I had been in Amway briefly myself.) I was actually right, more or less. He had my husband’s full name and later called to ask him if he wanted to go to a meeting about a business opportunity. Whether or not it was Amway is a mystery, because we didn’t go.

So when a teen shows up at my door selling magazines for an organization I’ve never heard of, I think, Scam.

What never occurred to me until recently was that the kid might be a victim of human trafficking.

The best resource to learn more about the problem of slavery on door-to-door sales crews, particularly those selling magazines, can be found in the 2015 report “Knocking at Your Door,” created by a major anti-trafficking organization, Polaris. It’s a 36-page document, but that includes the cover, end notes, and blank pages. It really is a quick read.

Here’s the summary for those who aren’t ready to read the report right now: Many door-to-door magazine sales crews (as well as some other sales crews) recruit disadvantaged youth with false promises of the opportunity to make a lot of money through sales. In reality, the kids earn little money, work long days, and live under difficult conditions. They’re often cut off from contacting their families. They may receive little food and will sleep crowded together in hotel rooms. They are coerced into staying through threats of abandonment (without money or even identification), acts of violence, and debt bondage.

The organization Traffick911 lists some signs that a door-to-door sales person may be a victim of modern-day slavery, including emotional appeals, bruising, malnourishment, inappropriate clothing for the weather, and information indicating they are not being paid or are not free to leave the crew. This organization suggests asking nonthreatening questions such as “How much money have you been able to raise for college so far?” or “Have you been working a lot lately?” If the young person answers evasively, they may be a victim of human trafficking.

At least one news organization suggests a more direct line of questions, such as “Are you being paid?” and “Can you leave if you want to?” You can also ask the youth to show you a city sales permit. Most cities require such a permit, but few of these traveling crews obtain them.

If you suspect human trafficking, you can call the National Human Trafficking Resource Center hotline: (888) 373-7888. You could also provide this number to the crew member at your door. Let them know that they can get help. (Of course, they will have to have privacy and access to a phone to make the call.)

Polaris also suggests changes to federal and state legislation in order to protect door-to-door salespeople, as well as promoting awareness of this form of labor trafficking among law enforcement agencies, hotel employees, and employees of bus companies. You can read the full list of suggestions on pages 23-26 of the Polaris report. Consider taking the time to advocate for these kids by encouraging legislators and businesses to do their part to stop trafficking in door-to-door sales crews.

Sometimes making a difference is ridiculously easy.

I first heard about TraffickCam through one of the anti-slavery organizations I follow. The concept is simple: Since sex traffickers often take pictures of their victims in a hotel room, searchable photos of hotel rooms can be used to locate the traffickers. TraffickCam wants to verify the location of the hotel where you are taking pictures, so you will need to allow it to see your location while you are using your phone, and you should use it while you are at your hotel, not after you’ve returned home.

If you have a smart phone, you can make a difference whenever you stay in a hotel. Simply get the free TraffickCam app and take up to four photos of your room (the app recommends two photos of the room from different angles, a photo of the bed from the foot of the bed, and a photo of the bathroom from its doorway). You can either take the photos in the app or upload them to the app.

That’s it! Please get the TraffickCam app today and use it during your next hotel stay.