A chilling time in history ruled by fear, power, and mass paranoia
This modern form of slavery traps hundreds of thousands of people into forced sex work, labor, and abuse in a US$150 billion global business, exceeding the illegal sale of arms and expected to exceed illegal drug sales, American Trucker reports.
According to the Polaris Project, the International Labor Organization estimates that there are 40.3 million victims globally, 25% of which are children.
Victims of child trafficking are often kidnapped or recruited, lured through websites or in-person at their school, shopping centers, or just on the street.
According to the nonprofit organization Erase Child Trafficking, 17,000 children are taken each year in the US alone.
Children who are homeless or runaways, LGBTQ, African American or Latino, and those in the child welfare system have higher recorded numbers in this particularly awful kind of exploitation, according to the nonprofit Thorn.
The National Center of Missing & Exploited Children estimates that, of the 18,500 runaways reported in 2016, one in six were victims of sex trafficking, the Polaris Project reports.
The Polaris Project also reports that 86% of those 18,500 runaways were in the care of social services or foster care when they ran.
The nonprofit organization was created in 2009 to inform truckers on how to spot and report human trafficking, as they are "the eyes and ears of our nation's highways," their website says.
With support from law enforcement agencies, some states (including Ohio, Arkansas, Texas, Washington, and Kansas) require their drivers to undergo this training, and they've already made an impact by freeing hundreds of victims, according to NPR.
The training program is completely free, available online, and takes less than 30 minutes. More than 453,000 people have completed the program so far, according to their website.
Kim Howson, coordinator of the TruckSTOP campaign (which was inspired by TAT), explained to Truck News, "Transportation is a key element of human trafficking. Traffickers move their victims frequently, to isolate them and to avoid detection. They travel the same roads and highways that truck drivers do."
Trucking companies, truck stop personnel, and truck drivers are the most likely to spot suspicious activity because they frequent locations that are isolated from bigger communities, which are popular among traffickers, according to the Polaris Project.
When a driver noticed suspicious activity at a truck stop, a simple call to 911 led to the rescue of two underage kidnapped girls and seven other individuals, the conviction of 31 traffickers, and the downfall of a trafficking ring that operated across 13 states, Truck News reports.
The signs are not obvious, so they require a keen eye into faces and interactions that take place at truck stops, rest areas, and highway motels. Here are some red flags for human trafficking, according to American Trucker, CDL Life, and TAT.
The pimp-victim dynamic can be very subtle, but any indication of someone who fears for their safety should be reported.
Victims of human trafficking are often drugged and abused to keep them powerless, and signs of either are huge red flags.
TAT's wallet card serves as a handy guide to these stressful situations, and it reminds truckers to note down "actionable information," including descriptions of cars and people, times and dates, as well as addresses and locations.
Though the truckers are warned not to approach traffickers, they are given questions to ask should they run into a seeming victim, including inquiries about if they keep their own money, if their family knows where they are, when the last time they saw their family was, if they were abused or being threatened, and what the nature of the threats are.
American Trucker reports that those calls uncovered 525 probable cases of human trafficking, involving 972 victims—a third of which were minors.
And the calls involve multiple reports of human trafficking cases in every single state, the Polaris Project reports.
Hopefully that's a sign of more informed truckers keeping careful watch over America's children, and that the numbers will soon drop drastically.
See also: Mediterranean tragedy: the dangerous migration routes to Europe
Truckers on the front line against human trafficking
The unexpected heroes in the battle against human trafficking
LIFESTYLE Missing children
Often when human trafficking is discussed, it's thought to be something that happens overseas, but unfortunately that's not the case. Human trafficking is a very real issue within the US. But the biggest heroes in the fight against this nationwide and global epidemic of modern slavery might not be your first guess, and they’re already saving lives. Truck drivers continue to combat child human trafficking with careful direction and tips from the Truckers Against Trafficking organization. Check out this gallery to see how and why truckers are at the forefront of this battle.