Trafficking

 AMSSND Province Trafficking Committee

What is Trafficking:  “Modern slavery,” “trafficking in persons,” and “human trafficking” have been used as umbrella terms for the act of recruiting, harboring, transporting, providing, or obtaining a person for compelled labor or commercial sex acts through the use of force, fraud, or coercion. 

Human trafficking can include but does not require movement. People may be considered trafficking victims regardless of whether they were born into a state of servitude, were exploited in their hometown, were transported to the exploitative situation, previously consented to work for a trafficker, or participated in a crime as a direct result of being trafficked. At the heart of this phenomenon is the traffickers’ goal of exploiting and enslaving their victims and the myriad coercive and deceptive practices they use to do so.

Trafficking should not be confused with smuggling which is the illegal movement of a person across a border with their consent. 

Overview: Because of the clandestine nature of the crime it is difficult to estimate how many victims of slavery exist at any one time in the World.  However, by modest estimates, we can assume that there are 20-30 million human beings who are enslaved in our world today. The International Labor Organization states that human trafficking is a 150 billion dollar industry. Human Trafficking is not a crime that happens “somewhere else.” Thousands of victims are trafficked within and through Canada and the United States annually. 

Learn about the different types of Modern Day Slavery

Why be concerned: Many people still think human trafficking and child sex trafficking are issues that happen in other countries and to other people, but they couldn't be more wrong. In fact, 83% of sex trafficking victims in the U.S. are United States citizens. Similarly, almost all the victims in Canada are Canadian born. it is happening throughout the U.S. in every neighborhood, and it's most likely happening in your neighborhood.

Read more about Human Trafficking in Canada:

Read more about Child Trafficking and the Technology Link.

Stop Slavery in the Supply Chains: Learn about, and consider purchasing Fair Trade manufactured goods

Access a directory of topics related to Human Trafficking archived in the STOP TRAFFICKING newsletter

FAIR TRADE HALLOWEEN CANDY

The U.S. Department of Labor reports millions of children in Africa work under hazardous conditions growing cocoa, the main ingredient in chocolate. These dangers include exposure to pesticides, lifting heavy loads, using sharp tools, and working in burning fields. And out of the billions of dollars chocolate producers make each year, farmers only see 6.6% of the profits—totaling to about $1 per day.

Child Slavery on Cocoa Farms in Cote d’Ivoire Lawsuit

Six African men are seeking damages from Nestlé USA and Cargill, alleging that as children they were trafficked out of Mali, forced to work long hours on Ivory Coast cocoa farms and kept at night in locked shacks. Their attorneys argue that the companies should have better monitored their cocoa suppliers in West Africa, where about two-thirds of the world’s cocoa is grown and child labor is widespread.