“Those who deny freedom to others, deserve it not for themselves.”
–President Abraham Lincoln

The month of January is designated as National Human Trafficking Awareness Month, an attempt to make the public more aware of this nefarious activity, its signs, and our efforts to fight it through law enforcement and Congressional action.

It’s estimated that there are more people enslaved today than all of those who were victims of what we consider “traditional” slavery. Men, women, and children are caught in the sick web of sex- or labor-trafficking.

Trafficking goes on under our radar in the worst and best of neighborhoods, communities, and cities. It’s particularly rampant in larger cities with quick interstate access and/or busy, large airports. People can be easily transported from region to region, making it harder for the authorities to rescue victims and arrest their traffickers.

Some sobering facts:
• Trafficking is more lucrative than the illegal drug trade. A drug can be used once, but a body can be sold multiple times a day.

• Men and boys account for about 25% of victims, and 50% of sex-trafficked youth are boys.

• Men are primarily labor-trafficked. Women and children are almost always sex-trafficked.

• Over forty percent of victims are trafficked by a family member or intimate partner.

• Trafficking occurs everywhere, including the nicest of neighborhoods.

• Victims often fail to seek help, as they’re either ashamed or afraid, or they’ve succumbed to “Stockholm Syndrome.”

• About twenty-five percent of child sex traffickers are women, with mothers sometimes trafficking their daughters for financial gain or to support a drug habit.

• ANY child with a screen device can be trafficked. Children are immature in their thinking and often fall for schemes and traps set by traffickers on the dark web. The “cleverest” criminals can get into a child’s device in five minutes or less. Access to social media makes children more vulnerable to being trafficked.

• Victims not only lose their freedom, but their dignity and sense of self-worth, often resulting in a greater chance they will never be set free.

Fortunately, law enforcement–even to the highest levels of the Department of Justice–and Congress are aware of the pervasiveness of trafficking. Officers are fighting it every day and our elected officials are drafting legislation to limit it. That said, only 1,912 persons were referred to U.S. attorneys for human trafficking offenses in the year 2022, representing a small percentage of all traffickers.

Some of the warning signs that your loved one, especially a child, may be undergoing “grooming” by traffickers:
• Mood swings and behavioral changes.

• Unexplained poor school performance and/or truancy.

• Use of street language.

• Possession of unexplained, expensive gifts.

• Couch surfing (spending nights at different people’s homes).

• Suspicious injuries.

• Answers to questions seem rehearsed and stories often contain inconsistencies.

Why should we care about trafficking? The reasons are both international and local. Globally, it’s a tremendous human rights issue. Closer to home, of course, our own children are just as vulnerable as children in other countries. And, everywhere, it’s an indication of how sick some elements of our society are.

All of us need to be aware of the risks of being trafficked. Parents must know and monitor the social media sites their children visit. Children thirteen and under shouldn’t be on such sites.

In his 1941 State of the Union speech, President Franklin D. Roosevelt articulated our four freedoms: Freedom of Speech, Freedom of Worship, Freedom from Want, and Freedom from Fear. Clearly, the world has changed, but we’re still far better off in the U.S. than are people in many other parts of the world.

Notwithstanding how startling this subject is, let’s be grateful to God for our relative safety and for the many other blessings in our lives.