Human Trafficking Awareness Month 2022
What is Child Sex Trafficking?
“Sex Trafficking encompasses the range of activities involved when a trafficker uses force, fraud, or coercion to compel another person to engage in a commercial sex act or cause a child to engage in a commercial sex act”.*
*2021 Trafficking in Persons Report, US State Department.
Because children are not able to consent to sexual activity, any commercial sex act involving a child is considered sex trafficking. Debt, poverty, and the lack of stable adult caregivers are significant factors that increase a child’s vulnerability to being exploited through trafficking. Regardless of whether an incident happens once or is reoccuring, the perpetrator can be charged with sex trafficking. Sex trafficking can also include online exploitation such as the production or distribution of child pornography.
More than anything, Chea wanted to go to school. But her family lacked the resources to pay for school uniforms and supplies for her and her five siblings. When a man came to her village to recruit children for a school in town, Chea begged her parents to let her go. Knowing that they could not send her themselves, they let her go. When the man brought Chea to town, the man raped her in the back of a bar. Chea was forced into sex trafficking. She didn’t know anyone in the town and had no way of communicating with her parents.
Chea’s story is a representation of the nightmare experienced by more than 1 million children* who are sexually exploited through trafficking every year.
*International Labor Organization, 2017. Global Estimates of Modern Slavery.
Rapha exists to care for young survivors of trafficking, exploitation, and abuse. To join us in combatting human trafficking in 2022, partner with Rapha today.
What is Labor Trafficking?
Labor trafficking occurs when a person is exploited through involuntary and/or uncompensated labor. Labor trafficking often includes inhumane working conditions that can be both physically dangerous and emotionally traumatizing. There are many different forms of labor trafficking, but it is often seen in the hospitality, textile, agriculture, and construction industries, among many others.
Waan and her family moved to Thailand to escape violence and extreme poverty in their own country. They paid a guide to bring them through the jungle to Thailand. He said he would find jobs for her mother and father when they arrived there. When they finally arrived in Thailand, Waan and her parents were forced to work for the man, who said they owed him much more money than was originally agreed upon. They worked at his farm for 12 or more hours a day without pay. They stayed on the farm and ate small scraps of food there. The man then said that they owed him even more for room and board. Waan and her family were trapped.
Waan’s story is a representation of the devastating entrapment experienced by 25 million people* who are trafficked for forced labor today.
*International Labor Organization, 2017. Global Estimates of Modern Slavery.
Rapha exists to care for young survivors of trafficking, exploitation, and abuse. Many children served by Rapha have been subject to labor trafficking. To join us in combatting human trafficking in 2022, partner with Rapha today.
