Other Trafficking
INTIMATE PARTNER TRAFFICKING: The newest to be defined by the U.S. Department of State (2011) occurs when a family member is the pimp or trafficker. Parents, aunts, boyfriends, or the husband is the pimp – trading the young victim for drugs or money.
If you or someone you know is being traded for drugs or sold by a family member for sexual services please call the National TIP line to report and inquire for assistance 888-3737-888
MAIL ORDER BRIDES: Foreign women are bought and brought to the U.S. to serve as a wife but can end up being controlled, abused and sometimes prostituted by the man that ordered her.
TRAVELING SALES CREWS: High School and College age young people are recruited to travel with crews those sale products door to door across the nation. If they are not being paid, not allowed to quit, suffer threats and abuse from their employer they may be victims of trafficking.
Do not assume that all of these companies are trafficking young people, they are mostly scam businesses that do take advantage of workers by promising them high earning potential through a pyramid type of business where the trainee starts out making very little, sometimes only $25 or $50 per week and working from 9:00 am to 9:00 pm each day.
The issue of trafficking occurs through measures of control exercised by a team leader or assistant. For example: if a worker is not allowed to quit because they owe the employer too much money; if there are threats of abuse, violence, or harming family members in an effort to motivate the workers to meet the daily quotas of neighborhood sales; if the workers are required to attend evening parties with the leader where drugs and sexual exploitation are perpetrated on the team members; if workers are physically abused or sexually abused in relationship to the debt they owe or as part of their payment; if the workers are threatened to be deported or left in a place without money or means to get back home; etc.
When you encounter a traveling sales person at your home or in a public market area they will start out with any number of sales approaches from winning a trip abroad to working to pay for their collage and end up showing you and order form for a product… usually magazines or cleaning supplies or books, etc. DO NOT PURCHASE from them – chances are good that you may never receive the product purchased. However, do ask them if they would like a sandwich or bottle of water (they seldom get to eat). Ask them if they feel safe with the traveling team that they are with… Ask them if they would like your help to get back home.
If they do not feel safe with their team but are too fearful to leave, ask for their cell number and tell them that you will call them later in the day with some options for them to think about. Call us at OATH and call Parent Watch 917-579-4641 for ideas.
If they want your help to get back home, a bus ticket is the most economical means of transportation. You can contact Parent Watch if you need assistance with purchasing the bus ticket.
CHILD BRIDES: When foreigners move here from other nations and continue to practice the cultural custom of arranged marriages by selling their daughter as an underage bride – this can be a form of human trafficking here in America.
ILLEGAL ADOPTIONS: When a woman is paid for her child by a broker that then charges the new parents an adoption fee and it is determined that the payment was illegal to the birth mom or by the adopting parents it may be a form of human trafficking. Obviously children that are abducted and sold through adoption programs are trafficked children.
ORGANS: When human organs are obtained illegally and sold to medical providers this can be a form of human trafficking.