How You Can Help Trafficking Victims Free Themselves

There are a lot of ways people who are living in slavery find freedom. The most highly publicized ways involve dramatic raids by law enforcement or community interventions by NGOs that rescue several victims at once. But in reality, a lot of trafficking victims rescue themselves. Here are some of the ways trafficking victims free themselves and how you can help give them the keys to their own freedom.

1. They walk away from the offer of slavery. The best moment for a person to escape slavery is the moment before they enter it. When you support human trafficking prevention programs, you arm communities and families with the knowledge and tools to avoid potential situations of exploitation. It can be as simple educating a young girl about the potential dangers of working abroad, so that she looks into her job offer in America with scrutiny. Or it can be as complex as creating industry in a village where, previously, the main source of income was sending children to work in the mines. The old adage that an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure holds especially true for modern-day slavery -- the best way to escape it is to avoid it in the first place.

2. They run. Some trafficking victims decide they can't wait for help to come to them, so they physically run away. This form of departure is often taken by slaves who are physically confined to their place of exploitation -- child soldiers trapped in a camp watched by armed guards, domestic servants locked in a house, or girls kept in a hidden brothel. But when these victims make the dangerous decision to run, they need some place to run to. When you support aftercare shelters and educational programs for local police and service providers, you help increase the chances that the first person victims encounter after their courageous and frightening stand will help them. 

3. They break an emotional or cultural bond. Many victims are not physically confined at all, but have emotional or cultural chains to break. These include romantic ties to the trafficker, as is common with young girls whose pimps start off as older boyfriends. They also include systems of debt bondage or slavery as part of religious or cultural traditions. When a sense of love or duty is keeping a victim enslaved, physical chains are unnecessary. But to be free, a victim must take on the challenging task of breaking those emotional or cultural bonds. And once they leave, these victims need counseling services and shelter.

4. They learn their rights. Traffickers are excellent liars, and often tell victims they have no rights, an especially powerful tactic when the victim has been taken to a new country. They tell the victim that the police will arrest and deport them, beat them, or rape them. They claim to be powerful in the local justice system and that nobody will help the victim. Some victims are able to leave once they learn that they do have rights. Know-your-rights outreach is especially effective among enslaved immigrant workers in various labor industries. When you support know-your-rights programs, you help give victims the tools and information they need to leave.

5. They trust authorities. Traffickers often tell victims that the police, lawyers, judges, social workers, etc. are all corrupt and untrustworthy. Especially in situations where there is an emotional bond between the trafficker and the victim, the victim may have a strong reluctance to trust authority. However, being able to open up to people in the legal system about what happened is key to getting victims help. This also takes law enforcement and other actors knowing how to build trust, which takes training and education.

In summary, trafficking victims can rescue themselves just as they can be rescued by outside forces. But when you support prevention programs, aftercare and shelter, counseling services, know-your-rights programs, and training for law enforcement, you help give victims those tools they need to help themselves.

Photo credit: nattu