Press Release

The World Day against Trafficking in Persons was proclaimed by the United Nations General Assembly in its resolution A/RES/68/192.

Human trafficking is modern-day slavery. Victims of human trafficking are often coerced into forced labor or commercial sex acts. They usually are subjected to working long hours with little to no pay and live in deplorable conditions. Many are considered to be property and may be denied routine medical care. If they do receive it, they may be under supervision and monitoring or coerced into silence or omission when meeting with their licensed healthcare providers. Men, women, and children can be victims of human trafficking. Traffickers do not discriminate against race, color, national origin, disability, gender, sexual orientation, religion, age, educational background, or socioeconomic status. Those who are emotionally, socially or financially vulnerable are more likely to be at risk of trafficking. Runaways or homeless youth are at increased risk. They may live in unstable housing, lack income, have disabilities, have been rejected and excluded from their families, or feel isolated and lonely in their unsuccessful pursuit of love and belongingness. These victims are often manipulated by predators, deceived by false promises and hope for stable housing, work opportunity or even false promises of love.

Undocumented migrant persons and Native Americans and Alaskan natives are also at risk in the United States. Most targets of human trafficking are female, 1 in every 3 are children, and child victims have tripled with a five-fold increase in the trafficking of boys in the past 15 years. Further, 50 per cent of victims were trafficked sexually, whereas 38 per cent were subjected to forced labor conditions. In all, there were 50,000 victims identified and reported by 148 countries as of 2018.

The UN's 2022 theme aims to spread awareness about how technology can be exploited to operate human trafficking rings and educate how technology can be deployed by the criminal justice system to impede these operations. As technology continues to advance, it is important for law enforcers to understand better how to leverage technological advances to identify traffickers and hold them accountable. It is also important for individuals, teachers, parents, and communities to spread awareness of what human trafficking is, how to protect financial and personally identifiable information on websites and social media platforms, and how to identify and report increasingly sophisticated scams. Finally, it is essential to practice safety when interacting with strangers online and verify the identity of the individuals we communicate with virtually.

The ICHRRF commits to educating others and raising awareness about these inhumane practices that affect our global communities and is committed to #EndHumanTrafficking