January is National Slavery and Human Trafficking Prevention Month

Appleton, WI -January is National Slavery and Human Trafficking Prevention Month

January was first declared as National Slavery and Human Trafficking Prevention Month in 2010. Since then, January has been a time to acknowledge those experiencing enslavement and those who have escaped.

Although slavery is commonly thought to be a thing of the past, human traffickers generate hundreds of billions of dollars in profits by trapping millions of people in horrific situations around the world, including here in the U.S. Traffickers use violence, threats, deception, debt bondage, and other manipulative tactics to force people to engage in commercial sex or to provide labor or services against their will (nctsn.org, 2020).

Here is a PDF of external resources from NCTSN.

What is human trafficking? Human trafficking involves the use of force, fraud, or coercion to obtain some type of labor or commercial sex act. Every year, millions of men, women, and children are trafficked worldwide – including right here in the United States.

It can happen in any community and victims can be any age, race, gender, or nationality.

Traffickers might use violence, manipulation, or false promises of well-paying jobs or romantic relationships to lure victims into trafficking situations (dhs.gov, 2020).

Here is an info-graphic from the dhs.gov "Blue Campaign" that helps to describe further in-depth what Human Trafficking is.