Human Trafficking

Worldwide human trafficking is a $32 billion industry which makes it the second largest crime industry behind the illegal drug trade. It involves the exploitation of males and females through prostitution, involuntary servitude or slavery, or sex acts for the creation of pornography (UNODC, 2014). Of the 20-30 million slaves worldwide, and 2.5 million in the US, about 80% are relating to sexual acts or involvements and the other 20% are involved in labor trafficking (National Coalition Against Domestic Violence, 2014). There are 25 main categories of modern sex and labor human trafficking from including pornography, domestic work, peddling, food service, agriculture, prostitution, hotels, construction, beauty services, massage parlors, carnivals, and escort services to name a few. Victims can be tricked by fake modeling contracts, romantic partners, fraud work visas, familial relationships, migration promises, drugs, and more (Polaris, 2017).

Additionally, many of those who look to migrate to the U.S or apply for those fraud work visas are people who vulnerable through economic injustice and oppression. For example, the failed North American Free Trade Agreement, led to the destruction of local Hispanic economies forcing them to immigrate away so they can to provide for their families (Kamala, Jyoti, & Bandana, 2015). Some experts say that human trafficking is also a reproductive justice issue as many female survivors and victims still do not have autonomy for their own reproductive decisions after so much control has already been taken away from them (Flores, 2009).

In 2007, there was an estimated amount that 100,000-300,000 American children that were trafficked each year with Florida being in the third worst state for human trafficking. The Bay Area region of Tampa has the highest rate in all of Florida. In 2015, there were 1,623 calls to the National Human Trafficking Hotline in Florida alone and in 2016, Fox News reported on a few cases of trafficking in New Port Richey and Polk county where over 115 people were arrested in a trafficking investigation, one of which was an elementary school director (Suarez, 2016; Holbrook, 2017).

Lize and Whitaker discuss an example of a human trafficking ring in Florida that lasted 14 years. This ring ended in 2006 when a judge convicted Ron Evans Sr. and his wife for keeping homeless men as indentured servants for their farm. The couple would go to homeless shelters and offer African-American men the chance to work and a place to live. Ron Evan Sr. would then keep their wages as compensation for living space and food and would sell cocaine and other commodities to the workers to put them in his debt. This ranged from farms in Florida all the way up to North Carolina (Lize & Pippin, 2013). Most people think that slavery is archaic, something our ancestors did which ended with the Emancipation Proclamation but slavery through human trafficking is still around today.

On the bright side, the Florida Safe Harbor Act helped law enforcement have ways to get children out of trafficking situations and there are numerous Florida coalitions to stop human trafficking as well. However, legislation in Florida that would require strict laws on massage parlors (one of the leading fronts for a sex trafficking operation), failed because it was believed that trafficking isn’t an issue. Men, women, girls, boys, and children are being used each day without rights or freedom and they do not get their justice without proper legislation (Logan, Walker, & Hunt, 2009).