Let’s Define Human Trafficking
“The recruitment, transportation, transfer, harboring or receipt of persons, by means of the threat or use of force or other forms of coercion, of abduction, of fraud, of deception, of the abuse of power or of a position of vulnerability or of the giving or receiving of payments or benefits to achieve the consent of a person having control over another person, for the purpose of exploitation.” -United Nation’s Palermo Protocols
Forced Labor and Sex Trafficking
Human Trafficking funnels down into either forced labor or sex trafficking. Sometimes the overlap Forced labor is also known as involuntary servitude. This form of trafficking in which persons are coerced to work through the use of violence or intimidation, or by more subtle means such as accumulated debt, retention of identity papers, or threats of denunciation to immigration authorities. Victims work long hours with very little to no pay and in inhumane working and living conditions
According to estimates from the International Labour Organization, the human trafficking industry generates 32 billion U.S. dollars every year. Half of this amount comes from industrialized countries, and a third is generated in Asia. Trafficking can occur both within a country and trans-nationally. Because people can literally be sold, again and again, trafficking is the world’s fastest-growing crime.
Men, women, and children from every ethnicity and every fabric of society are victims of human trafficking. The International Labour Organization estimates that 25% (10 million) of victims are men, 25% are children (10 million), and 75% are women and girls (30 million).
The Commercial Sex Industry
Today, our society permits or advocates for a commercial sex industry that supports sex trafficking through its underlying attitude that it’s okay to buy women’s and men’s bodies for sex. We cannot hope to fight sex trafficking unless we fight the underlying mindset that permits and advocates for pornography, stripping, and prostitution.
Prostitution
According to some studies, 89% of women enslaved in prostitution desperately want to escape. Often our society sees prostitution as a choice, but women and children are often compelled or forced to enter prostitution due to a lack of choice because of poverty or through coercion or abuse. Catalyst Ministries believes God sees all women and girls who are trapped in prostitution as equally valuable and precious; deserving of unconditional love and freedom from their bondage.
Pornography
Pornography and sex trafficking are inseparably linked. Pornography does not condemn sexual violence. Pornography does not condemn illegal, harmful sexual activity. Pornography does not condemn the sexual objectification and degrading of women.
Pornography normalizes all of these. And our American society is saturated in it.