Sex trafficking is human trafficking for the purpose of sexual exploitation. It has been called a form of modern slavery because of the way victims are forced into sexual acts non-consensually, in a form of sexual slavery. Perpetrators of the crime are called sex traffickers or pimps—people who manipulate victims to engage in various forms of commercial sex with paying customers. Sex traffickers use force, fraud, and coercion as they recruit, transport, and provide their victims as prostitutes. Sometimes victims are brought into a situation of dependency on their trafficker(s), financially or emotionally. Every aspect of sex trafficking is considered a crime, from acquisition to transportation and exploitation of victims. This includes any sexual exploitation of adults or minors, including child sex tourism (CST) and domestic minor sex trafficking (DMST).
International Justice Mission is an international, non-governmental 501(c)(3) organization focused on human rights, law and law enforcement. Founded in 1997 by lawyer Gary Haugen of the United States, it is based in Washington, D.C. All IJM employees are required to be practicing Christians; 94% are nationals of the countries they work in.
Prajwala is a non-governmental organization based in Hyderabad, India, devoted exclusively to eradicating prostitution and sex trafficking. Founded in 1996 by Ms. Sunitha Krishnan and Brother Jose Vetticatil, the organization actively works in the areas of prevention, rescue, rehabilitation, re-integration, and advocacy to combat trafficking in every dimension and restore dignity to victims of commercial sexual exploitation.
Efforts to crack down on human trafficking in Russia focus not only on the men, women, and children who are illegally shipped out of Russia to undergo forced labor and sexual exploitation in other countries, but also those who are illegally brought into Russia from abroad. The Government of the Russian Federation has made significant progress in this area over the past decade, but a report commissioned by the United States Department of State in 2010 concluded that much more needed to be done before Russia could be taken off its Tier 3 watchlist. U.S. State Department's Office to Monitor and Combat Trafficking in Persons placed the country in "Tier 3" in 2017.
Uzbekistan is a source country for women and girls who are trafficked to the United Arab Emirates (U.A.E.), Kazakhstan, Russia, Thailand, Turkey, India, Indonesia, Israel, Malaysia, South Korea, Japan and Costa Rica for the purpose of commercial sexual exploitation. Men are trafficked to Kazakhstan and Russia for purposes of forced labor in the construction, cotton and tobacco industries. Men and women are also trafficked internally for the purposes of domestic servitude, forced labor in the agricultural and construction industries, and for commercial sexual exploitation. Many school-age children are forced to work in the cotton harvest each year.
Coalition to Abolish Slavery and Trafficking (CAST) is a Los Angeles-based anti-human trafficking organization. Through legal, social, and advocacy services, CAST helps rehabilitate survivors of human trafficking, raises awareness, and affects legislation and public policy surrounding human trafficking.
In the United States, human trafficking tends to occur around international travel hubs with large immigrant populations, notably in California, Texas, and Georgia. Those trafficked include young children, teenagers, men, and women; victims can be domestic citizens or foreign nationals.
Polaris is a nonprofit non-governmental organization that works to combat and prevent sex and labor trafficking in North America. The organization's 10-year strategy is built around the understanding that human trafficking does not happen in vacuum but rather is the predictable end result of a range of other persistent injustices and inequities in our society and our economy. Knowing that, and leveraging data available from more than a dozen years operating the U.S. National Human Trafficking Hotline, Polaris is focused on three major areas of work: building power for migrant workers who are at risk of trafficking in U.S. agricultural and other industries; leveraging the reach and expertise of financial systems to disrupt trafficking, creating accountability for perpetrators of violence against people in the sex trade and expanding services and supports to vulnerable people to prevent trafficking before it happens.
Transnational efforts to prevent human trafficking are being made to prevent human trafficking in specific countries and around the world.
Armenia is a source country for women subjected to trafficking in persons (TIP), specifically forced prostitution; a source and destination country for women in forced labor; and a source country for men in forced labor. Women from Armenia are subjected to sex trafficking in the United Arab Emirates and Turkey.
Costa Rica is a source, transit, and destination country for goods and products, a great location for trade in the seas. Costa Rica is surrounded by the Pacific Ocean and the Caribbean Sea making it a source of imports and exports. Costa Rica is approximately 19,653 square miles of land, making it smaller than West Virginia. To a lesser but increasing extent, Costa Rica is a source, transit, and destination country for men, women, and children subjected to conditions of forced labor, particularly in the agriculture, construction, fishing, and domestic service sectors. The economy greatly depends on the exportation of bananas and coffee, making high demands of agriculture work. Costa Rican women and children are forced into commercial sexual exploitation due to high rates of poverty and violence. Women and girls from Nicaragua, the Dominican Republic, Guatemala, Colombia, and Panama have been identified in as victims of forced prostitution. Child sex tourism is a serious problem, particularly in the provinces of Guanacaste, Limón, Puntarenas, and San José. Child sex tourists arrive mostly from the United States and Europe. Young men from Nicaragua, Vietnam, China and other Asian countries are subjected to conditions of forced labor in Costa Rica. Adults have been identified using trafficked women and children to transport and sell drugs. Neighboring countries and cities are victims as well to forced labor many times trafficked to Costa Rica.
Victims' rights are legal rights afforded to victims of crime. These may include the right to restitution, the right to a victims' advocate, the right not to be excluded from criminal justice proceedings, and the right to speak at criminal justice proceedings.
The A21 Campaign is a global 501(c)(3) non-profit, non-governmental organization that works to fight human trafficking, including sexual exploitation and trafficking, forced slave labor, bonded labor, involuntary domestic servitude, and child soldiery. The organization was founded by Christine Caine, an international motivational speaker, in 2008. The A21 Campaign aims to "abolish slavery everywhere, forever," and focuses on combatting slavery around the world through educational awareness and prevention, the protection of victims, the prosecution of traffickers, and various partnerships. The A21 Campaign has branches in the Australia, Bulgaria, Cambodia, Denmark, Greece, Norway, Portugal, South Africa, Spain, Thailand, Ukraine, the United Kingdom, the United States and more.
Human trafficking in California is the illegal trade of human beings for the purposes of reproductive slavery, commercial sexual exploitation, and forced labor as it occurs in the state of California. Human trafficking, widely recognized as a modern-day form of slavery, includes
"the recruitment, transportation, transfer, harboring or receipt of persons by means of threat or use of force or other forms of coercion, of abduction, of fraud, of deception, of the abuse of power, or of a position of vulnerability or of the giving or receiving of payments or benefits to achieve the consent of a person having control over another person, for the purpose of exploitation. Exploitation shall include, at a minimum, the exploitation of prostitution of others or other forms of sexual exploitation, forced labor services, slavery or practices similar to slavery, servitude or the removal of organs."
The Blue Heart Campaign is an international anti-trafficking program started by the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC). Established in 1997, the UNODC supported countries in implementing three UN drug protocols. In 2000, after the UN General Assembly adopted the Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punish Trafficking in Persons, the UNODC became the “guardian” of that protocol and assumed the functions of fighting against human trafficking. The Blue Heart Campaign was launched in March 2009 by the Executive Director of the UNODC, Antonio Maria Costa, during his address to the World's Women's Conference meeting in Vienna. The campaign's symbol is a blue heart. The Blue Heart Campaign uses its website, as well as Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and Flickr to communicate goals, objectives, and news with the public.
Sunita Danuwar, is a Nepalese human rights activist and the founder of Sunita Foundation and Shakti Samuha, a non-governmental organization based in Nepal formed by women rescued from brothels in India that works against the trafficking of women.
Awareness Against Human Trafficking (HAART) is a non-governmental organization working on the problem of human trafficking in Kenya. It was founded in 2010.
Sex trafficking in Mexico, or human trafficking, is the illegal practice of sexual exploitation of human beings in the United Mexican States. Sex trafficking is considered a form of modern-day slavery because of its attempt to recruit, entice, transport, or coerce someone into non-consensual sexual acts for personal gain. Mexico is an origin, transit, and destination for sex trafficking, a global industry that earns profits of approximately 150 billion a year.
The Dreamcatcher Foundation is a Chicago-based non-profit organization that helps women who want to stop working in the sex industry, especially female prostitutes. They offer services to help the women reintegrate into society. The non-profit organization is working towards creating a facility of their own where the women will be able to stay while getting help. They have saved 87 women since their foundation.
