What Do We Do About Human Trafficking?
Human Trafficking Awareness Month
“How can I fight human trafficking?”
It’s a sincere question I am regularly asked, and to be honest, after a decade in this field I still don’t have the answer that people expect to hear.
Concerned people, moved by the stories of violence and injustice, are often at a loss on how to alleviate or prevent human suffering, but sometimes folks have an incomplete picture of the thing they want to fight.
Human trafficking happens when someone uses power, fear, and influence to compel another person to perform some sort of labor or services. Human trafficking also happens when sex acts by anyone under the age of 18 are exchanged for something of value.
Human trafficking is a human rights issue driven by a web of exploitation and harm that shows up on individual, relational, community, and cultural levels. It can’t be reduced to just a few things. The impact of misunderstanding the complexity of the problem is misunderstanding the solutions. And this harms survivors.
It leads to simplistic 3-step responses such as: identify, rescue, and restore, which is a catchy phrase for initiatives and mission statements, but does it tell the truth? The helpers who are led on by those single “threads” soon face a ball of twine so knotted that trafficked survivors are further burdened with a “sorry, our program does not have capacity to serve THAT KIND of survivor.”
Consider two very common scenarios:
The thread of identify, rescue and restore leads us to a hospital room, where a trans woman has been physically and sexually assaulted by her trafficker, whose social worker is on the phone trying to find safe housing. Rejected by family, barred from the only housing she can afford because of her criminal record for coerced drug sales, and barred from the local human trafficking organizations who will not receive transwomen in their shelters.
The thread of identify, rescue, and restore leads us to a park bench where an advocate is trying to convince a fifteen year old that her boyfriend is “pimping her out” and that she needs to stop running away from her placements or she’ll end up in detention. The advocate explains to the young person that she has to report this to social services. The youth insists that her boyfriend loves her and cares for her more than anyone else ever had, and that staying with him is better than returning to placements where she is sexually abused.
So you see, fighting human trafficking is much more than a call to a hotline. It’s changing systems and cultural norms that refuses to see other humans as mugshots and problem youth. It’s building programs around all types of survivors.
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Fighting human trafficking also calls in landlords, city council, business owners and community members to lower barriers to substance use recovery, to volunteer as coaches and mentors, and to provide apprenticeships to those post-incarceration. It’s about safe, affordable housing, it’s about access to medical care, it’s about healthy schools and violence free neighborhoods. It’s about caring for everyone equally.
We must consider how marginalized people are made vulnerable–those who cannot get the same treatment and assistance as the well-housed, well-fed, and well-connected. And what do we do when a young person who says her trafficker is the only person who cares for her? Blaming and pointing fingers helps noone.
I could walk you through story after story of trafficked survivors I have had the priviledge of knowing: sex workers, teenage runaways, gang-affiliated youth, young men, undocumented mothers with little children, incareracted people– who filled my ears with testimonies of mistreatment and injustice: sexual abuse, bribes, blind eyes turned. Black and brown women and girls who could not get anyone to listen to them about their mental health needs. Survivors who have overcome generational trauma, racism, forced abortions, family violence, strip searches, homelessness. A trafficker takes advantage of all these things. Let’s work to deprive a trafficker of opportunities.
What is to be done about human trafficking?
Be attuned and attend to your young people’s mental health needs, don’t be afraid to reach out to those in distress. Pay fair wages on time. Be a safe supportive adult to all young people, especially those on the fringes. Don’t sell your old car: give it to someone with transportation needs. Be a mentor. Think about zoning policies and how they may impact everyone, not just the well-connected.
Care about the babies inside and outside of the wombs. Be anti-racist. Support those supporting others: those working in the rape crisis centers, public schools, health care, and social services. Be kind. Lend to those who cannot repay you. Volunteer to tutor kids, support youth diversion opportunities. Open your eyes. Don’t worry if others think you’re getting carried away with caring for others outside your “group.” Leave that to God.
Let’s combine the individual blessings of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness with the mandate of Scripture to pursue the well-being of others, not just those who look like us. That’s not a political ideology, that’s just love.
That’s how we fight human trafficking.
Dear reader,
I am interested in writing a follow up to this post based on your feedback. If you have any, you can leave those comments here or email me dunkertoncourtney@gmail.com. I’d love to hear from you.
Thanks for reading.
