Today, is the World Day Against Trafficking in Persons.
But what is Human Trafficking and why should you care? And what can you do, personally, to help?
Human trafficking is considered to be modern day slavery.
There are an estimated 27 million adults and 13 million children around the world who are victims of trafficking.
While most human trafficking in the U.S. occurs in New York, California and Florida, Wichita, Kansas, is the fifth largest city in the U.S. for human trafficking. This is due to it being a hub in relationship to I-35 and I-70.
Many victims can be found at truck stops, on the streets such as Broadway in Wichita, casinos, bars, strip joints shopping mall and motels.
Human trafficking isn’t just the sex trade. It includes forced manual labor and human organ harvesting, although prostitution encompasses the largest portion.
Human trafficking is one of the fastest growing criminal industries because it holds relatively low risk with high profit potential. It is estimated to be a $32 billion industry and growing.
What can you do?
One real thing you can do right now is
- Grab your smartphone
- Look for the TraffickCam app and download it for free online from the Apple app store or Google Play.
- Use the app to take and upload photos of your hotel room every time you travel.
How does this help?
The TraffickCam app empowers travelers in the fight against sex trafficking by taking photos of their hotel rooms and anonymously uploading them to a national database, which will be used by law enforcement and investigators to locate victims and their pimps. Human traffickers often post pictures on the web of women and children they are advertising for sex. Hotel conference planners can help identify the hotel and the chain, and sometimes even the city just by the background in the photo.
Photos taken and marked with a location are sent to a large database available for law enforcement agencies and the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children. The app has already had significant results.
For more information on human trafficking, visit these sites
www.raisemyhead.org out of Wichita, Kansas
www.ictsos.org out of Wichita, Kansas
www.truckersagainsttrafficking.com
www.veronicasvoice.org out of Kansas City, Kansas
www.acf.hhs.gov/trafficking
Or call the National Human Trafficking Resource Center 1-888-373-7888 This hotline can help victims safely and securely begin to rebuild their lives by connecting them to basic services including housing, health care, immigration assistance, food, employment and legal assistance.
Sisters of St. Joseph of Concordia, Kansas ©July 2017