Human Trafficking Awareness Day 2013

“It is barbaric and it is evil and it has no place in a civilized world,” – President Barack Obama

Yet it persists. Did you know more people are enslaved today than have been enslaved throughout history?  That law enforcement experts believe human trafficking is the fastest growing criminal industry in the world?

Human trafficking is a ~32 billion dollar industry that victimizes nearly 21 million people across the world and Florida carries the shame of consistently being one of the top 3 states in our nation for this atrocious crime.

The United Nations defines human trafficking as the recruitment, transportation, transfer, harboring or receipt of people — by threat, abduction, deception or abuse of power — for the purpose of sexual or labor-related exploitation. Eighty percent of those trafficked are women and girls, and half of all trafficking victims are younger than 13.

Slaves fight our wars, grow our food, make our products, provide us with sexual entertainment, and provide us with bodily organs. We are all touched by the modern slave trade and NONE of us are exempt from the call to end it.

An abolitionist and an anti-slavery supporter are not one and the same. I implore you to go a step further than inactive support. Take that next step and begin actively working towards ending modern-day slavery. Your efforts as an abolitionist are necessary and vital to this movement.

In honor of Human Trafficking Awareness Day, please join me in signing a petition to help protect and support young victims of sex trafficking and sexual exploitation.

“When minors are involved in commercial sex, they are kids, not criminals. When a boy is sold for sex by a family member, he needs services, not a prison sentence. When a girl is trapped by a pimp who sells her for sex online, she needs protection, not prosecution. Yet, all too often, these children are still arrested and treated like criminals.” -Polaris Project

Polaris Project is fighting to pass Safe Harbor laws in 2013. As a result of the passing of these laws, children will be recognized, not as criminals, but as victims. These laws define child victims of sexual exploitation as kids, not criminals, and provide funding for the services they so desperately need. Thirty-nine states lack these basic Safe Harbor protections. That must change in 2013.

RESOURCES

Florida Department of Children and Families

U.S. Department of State TIP (Trafficking in Persons)

Department of Homeland Security

U.S. Department of Health and Human Services

FBI Federal Bureau of Investigation

The National Human Trafficking Resource Center (NHTRC) is a national, toll-free hotline, available to answer calls from anywhere in the country, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, every day of the year. SAVE THIS NUMBER NOW! 1-888-3737-888