WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW

"Knowing the facts and crisis of human trafficking and slavery will lead one to compassion, cry for justice, and action as a modern day abolitionist." ~ Anonymous

1) “No one shall be held in slavery or servitude; slavery and the slave trade shall be prohibited in all their forms.” ~ Universal Declaration of Human Rights by UN National Assembly

• U.S. State Dept.'s Trafficking in Persons reports says, "severe forms of trafficking in persons" defined as:

"(a) sex trafficking in which a commercial sex act is induced by force, fraud, or coercion, or in which the person induced to perform such act has not attained 18 years of age; or (b) the recruitment, harboring, transportation, provision, or obtaining of a person for labor or services, through the use of force, fraud or coercion for the purpose of subjection to involuntary servitude, peonage, debt bondage, or slavery."

2) Global human problem: 29 million+ slaves today (2009) – if this was a country it would be the 42nd most populated country in the world

• Source: Kara, Siddharth, Sex Trafficking - Inside the Business of Modern Slavery. Columbia University Press

3) Up to 300,000 domestic minor sex trafficking victims are in the streets right now in the U.S.

• Source: SharedHope International, The National Report on Domestic Minor Sex Trafficking (2009)
  

4) Up to 800,000 victims annually trafficked across transnationally, 80% women & girls

• Source: US Department of State

5) Human Trafficking is 2^nd Most Lucrative Criminal Industry in World at rate of $12-$60 billion dollars annually (#1 is drugs + #3 is weapons)

6) In U.S., up to 17,500 children and women are trafficked in to the U.S. annually

• Source: US Department of State Trafficking in Persons Report 2006

7) Global health problem: 50-90% sex workers in South Asia and South Africa have HIV/AIDS

8) Multi-crimes are commmitted against victims of sex slavery:

• Kidnap, physical abuse, threats, rape, gang rape, emotional trauma, sexual-labor exploitation, drugs, STDs, murder, etc.

9) Slavery is a horrendous part of the U.S. - both in its gruesome history of it being legal and the growing problem today of the U.S.

10) The hope is the U.S. ended slavery once and we can do it again. Help us end slavery once and for all and making giving support for a slave-free Seattle and taking it one city at a time and focus our efforts on:

(a) Victims rescue

(b) Perpetrator accountability

(c) Better survivors care

(d) Structural prevention (i.e. adequate laws + enforcement)

(e) Cultural transformation

Facts & Figures

• 29.2 million slaves today
• 64% bonded labor/debt bondage slaves
• 27% forced labor
• 9% trafficked slaves
• $340 per slave is weighted avg. global sales price
• 800,000 people are trafficked transnationally with 80% women & girls and up to 50% are minors

Stats provided by www.seattleagainstslavery.org
Photo Courtesy of Carlee Avery