Dear Future President,

When most people hear about human trafficking, they don’t understand what it truly means. Many people think that it is just sex trafficking, but it is so much more. Human trafficking is defined as, organized criminal activity in which human beings are treated as possessions to be controlled and exploited according to Merriam-Webster. What this means is being taken and forced to do something against your will, including things such as sex trafficking, forced labor, and any other kind of exploitation. Due to lack of awareness many people don’t understand what all of it’s aspects truly are, therefore we need to provide more awareness and ways trafficked people can get out. This is not just a global problem or even just a national problem, but it is a local problem that affects the whole United States daily right under our noses and we don’t even notice it.

People need to be given more awareness about human trafficking so they know what the issue really is. Over the past several years people are beginning to gain more knowledge against human trafficking but still very few people know what it is and who it affects. According to Theresa Flores, founder of Save Our Adolescents from Prostitution (S.O.A.P) in the article “Survivor discusses human trafficking, abolition movements professor discusses human trafficking” she stated, “ About 100,000 kids are trafficked around the world, Flores said, and 3,500 kids go missing each day.” “ Human trafficking is the 2nd leading crime in the world,” She said.” 80% of victims are women, 20% are men, and 30% of all victims are children.” This is important to the awareness of human trafficking because many people believe that only women and children are trafficked while really men are also trafficked. Further, most people don’t know where all of this happens. Most people would probably say that it happens online and by people meeting and being around people the shouldn’t be around. While both are true most people are taken from right in front of us, in public. Again according to Flores,” Most victims are coerced from public places like libraries, supermarkets, rest stops and truck stops, or through social media, chat-rooms and Craigslist, Flores said.” This matters because most people are forced from places that they can easily be seen, but few people know about it so few people notice it. Without people really noticing and knowing the situation, what can really be done about it? These connect to people’s lack of awareness about what human trafficking really is because everyday more and more people are being trafficked and most common people don’t even know it. Given more awareness people would know about what it is and what people this affects.

People also need to be given more awareness about the issue to understand how big and how far this modern slavery extends to. The problem is not just something seen around the U.S. but worldwide. Many people wouldn’t dream of something like this happening in the United States or even the UK, but it does. This also does affect the people in the UK, according to the article “Human trafficking sentencing” written by the European News it had stated in it, “GLA head of operations, Ian Waterfield, said: ‘Sadly, tales of forced labor like that played out by the ruthless individuals that have been conceived in this case are all too common throughout the UK.” This matters because many people wouldn’t think that this is a very big problem or that it would even exist in the UK, especially in the form of forced labor as it is not seen as a poor area. Furthermore, it is also seen in some areas you might not think of having human trafficking. While countries in Asia have a high population of people in human trafficking doesn’t mean that everyone knows about it. Every year the U.S along with the UN rate countries in human trafficking by their known amount of trafficking that happens in the country. In an article titled “Myanmar is among worst human traffickers, U.S. says”, it stated that “The state department said in its report that the conscription of children by the country’s military and the widespread use of forced labor, including the sex trafficking of women and children, remained serious problems in Myanmar”. This matters because because as the government knows about the global trafficking they fail to inform the citizens of America, as the normal U.S. citizen knows very little about the problem that is globally and nationally prevalent. These prove that even though human trafficking happens happens often globally, in countries you’d expect and ones you wouldn’t, people don’t know that it happens because they are not given enough awareness of this problem happening everywhere, even by the media.

The first step to learning any awareness of human trafficking is understanding the root of the problem, the causes. The problem that most people like to blame human trafficking on is poverty or being kidnapped by some criminal. However, these are not the only or main reasons for human trafficking to happen. Once again stated by Flores, “I was trafficked in my own community,” she said. “ Only 3% are kidnapped; 35% [were] trafficked because [of] a family member selling them and 62% [were] trafficked in the United States because they [were] tricked.” This matters because Theresa Flores grew up in the upper-middle class suburb of Detroit Michigan, and if that can happen there without people knowing think of all the other places human trafficking is happening right now. This also matters because the majority of people being trafficked in the U.S were tricked because they weren’t aware of what could be out there and what could happen to them. Some of the people are tricked by being “boyfriended” meaning that their boyfriend sold them into trafficking. In addition some of these statistics have also been proven in other countries as well. When talking about in countries in Asia they also suffer from similar ways of being pulled into human trafficking. Many countries surrounding China are relatively poor causing higher rates of human trafficking by the people who were searching for better opportunities. In the article about Myanmar, it included this interview, “ He [Thet Naung] attributed the country’s [Myanmar] problems largely to poverty, which he said has driven people to neighboring countries in search of higher wages and left them especially vulnerable to forced labor. The gender imbalance in China is also to blame, he said, driving the demand for brides from nearby countries such as Myanmar.” This matters because countries all over the world suffer from being tricked because they cannot take the situation they are living in any longer. China also causes a huge problem because their gender imbalance is so great that modern slavery is their means of trying to fix the problem. This proves that to know more about the root of the problem you have to know the causes for that happening. It also helps to know the causes so you can help towards fixing the problem. If people were given more awareness everywhere then they would be given the ability to help people being trafficked and prevent it from happening to other people. The start of helping others begins with awareness of the problem.

To conclude, due to the fact that their is a lack of awareness of human trafficking we need to increase awareness to help and prevent this modern slavery from happening to other people. This has hopefully shown to you that human trafficking does have some serious misconceptions and how many people are affected not just globally, but also the problem nationally. This is something that more people should care about because how big of a problem it is and it could be happening in your own community or a nearby community and you don’t even know it. Many of the people who go missing and are not found within two days they are most likely being trafficked, which is a big reason to care. So many people go missing each year and think of how many of those people are found, and the ones who aren’t are being trafficked. With the information that I have just given I also have ways to help fight against human trafficking. High schoolers and people in general throughout the U.S need to be given a human trafficking program where they can be given awareness and they can share it with others. Also, we need to add more safe houses across the U.S and worldwide to give people who are being trafficked and way to get out and have opportunities for their future. If you want to learn more about Theresa Flores’ mission go to traffickfree.com. There are also other websites you can go on to learn more about this epidemic you can go on enditmovement.com, priclessmovement.com, and 3strandsglobal.com or 3strandsshop.com. You don’t need human trafficking to happen to you to do something about it. You can start off small by supporting national human trafficking day on January 11th or help a movement by donating or buying things that were made by people who were pulled out of human trafficking.

       Sincerely,

                          Jenna P.