According to the Polaris Project, in 2021, there were 10,359 incidents of human trafficking reported to the United States National Human Trafficking Hotline. 28 million people are trapped in human trafficking situations worldwide, including 3.3 million children. While difficult to think about, these numbers are only rising, and it is important for beauty professionals particularly to understand the signs of human trafficking so that they can help potential victims. 

THE HUMAN TRAFFICKING NETWORK

 Human trafficking is often confused with human smuggling, which is when people are kidnapped and brought across foreign borders illegally. Homeland Security defines human trafficking as “involving the use of force, fraud, or coercion to obtain some type of labor or commercial sex act.” Furthermore, the Trafficking Victims Protection Act (TVPA) explains that human trafficking is “the recruitment, harboring, transportation, provision, or obtaining of a person for labor or services through the use of force, fraud, or coercion for the purpose of subjection to involuntary servitude, peonage, debt bondage, or slavery.” 

Human trafficking is a form of modern slavery, where people are held against their will for labor purposes. The perpetrators use tactics that can mirror dynamics of domestic violence, such as economic abuse, emotional abuse, intimidation, isolation, or threats to trap victims. 

References

1. “Homepage.” Safe Horizon, October 25, 2023. https://www.safehorizon.org/. 

1. “Human Trafficking Training.” Polaris, November 1, 2023. https://polarisproject.org/training/. 

1. “Human Trafficking.” Human Trafficking | Homeland Security. Accessed November 10, 2023. https://www.dhs.gov/topics/human-trafficking. 

1. “Human Trafficking.” National Human Trafficking Hotline. Accessed November 10, 2023. https://humantraffickinghotline.org/en.