Human Trafficking Awareness

What is human trafficking?

Article 3 of the United Nations Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punish Trafficking in Persons, Especially Women and Children, supplementing the Convention on Transnational Organised Crime (2000), defines trafficking as:

Recruiting, transporting, transferring, harbouring or receipting persons, by means of

• the threat or use of force or other forms of coercion,
• abduction,
• fraud,
• deception,
• abuse of power or
• a position of vulnerability or
• giving or receiving of payments or benefits
• to achieve the consent of a person having control over another person, for the purposes of exploitation.

The main purposes of human trafficking are: sexual exploitation, forced labour, slavery or similar practices and the removal of organs.

Human trafficking affects countries and families on every continent. It should be remember that people are trafficked not only between countries but also within the borders of a state. Due to its specific nature it is difficult to estimate the accurate number of human trafficking victims. The International Labour Organisation (ILO) estimates that at any one time there are some 2.5 million people who have been trafficked and are being subjected to sexual or labour exploitation.

How to identify the victims?

• Person does not speak the language of the country of staying;
• Person originates from foreign countries;
• There are bruises or other signs of battering visible on the body as well as signs of malnutrition;
• Person is unaware of local surroundings even though staying in the area for an extended period of time;
• There are evidence of control or abnormal psychological fear;
• There are evidence of an inability to move or leave job;)

Where to find help:

• Contact Police Offices in the country of staying
• NHTRC (The National Human Trafficking Resource Center) is a national, toll-free hotline 1-888-3737-888 (USA)
• Child Exploitation and Online Protection Centre (UK) in an emergency in the UK, dial 999