Annually, 600,000 to 800,000 people are trafficked around the world. The majority of them come from other countries, but tens of thousands are brought to the United States and sold, transported from one place to the next. Sex trafficking, as one may assume, is not limited to big cities like Chicago and Los Angeles. It can happen anywhere… even Marshall, Minnesota.
Breaking Free speaker Joy Friedman had been trafficked as a teenager, and upon coming to Marshall she realized that, it too, had been a town she was brought to by a previous trafficker. As a survivor, she now speaks around Minnesota and surrounding areas to bring sex trafficking awareness through Breaking Free. Breaking Free is an organization that helps 400 to 500 girls and women every year to aid them in counseling, finding employment, education, and more.
“In this day, you can order everything online,” Friedman said. “You can order a pizza, a phone, a couch, and a human in just a few clicks.”
With the anonymity that comes along with the Internet, the ease of sex trafficking has increased massively. Facebook and Craigslist are particular online hotspots for sex traffickers to find their victims, or even sell them. However, it is not limited to the Internet. Malls, clubs, and even libraries have been frequented places by traffickers.
“Predators know exactly what to say to get you to come to them,” Friedman said. “All it takes is a little coaxing, a little understanding of what it is you want. If you’re lonely, they’ll pay attention to you. And some people just thrive off of that.”
Traffickers use intense fear to emotionally abuse their victims. Many people who are subject to this torture are not physically forced to stay, but instead are threatened. They are told that they will be arrested for prostitution, or their families will be harmed. Some form relationships with their trafficker and they feel that this is who they are: if they didn’t have this, they would have nothing. This fear is what keeps them from running.
“So many people blame these girls for being prostitutes, when in reality, she did not choose it. Most human traffickers were sexually exploited at 12 to 14 years of age,” explained Friedman. “Once they put that first price on you, your self esteem, your self worth… it’s all gone.”
Friedman urges people to look beneath the surface for signs of trafficking.
“Many of the same tactics used in domestic violence are used in trafficking,” Friedman said. “Physical abuse, intense fear, depression are all signs someone may be in need of help.”
The National Human Trafficking Resource Center can be contacted 24 hour a day, 7 days a week at 1-800-373-7888 if you or someone you know may be a victim, you know of a facilitator or trafficker.
As Friedman stated at the end of her presentation, “Until the demand for human trafficking is gone, there will always be buyers, and it will never end.”