Stopping the Second-Most Profitable Industry in the World: Ending Human Trafficking as a Healthcare Provider
By: Yena Cho
What do you imagine when you think of a human trafficking victim? Is it a girl in a much-too-short skirt, strolling around on black stilettos with bruises along her arms? Or perhaps it’s an older woman with bags around her bloodshot eyes, a tired look of resignation as she stands on dark street corners, waving people in.
Many of these stereotypes, however, fail to fully encapsulate the magnitude and disparity of the human trafficking problem.
The United States Department of Justice defines human trafficking as “a crime that involves compelling or coercing a person to provide labor or services, or to engage in commercial sex acts.” It’s a crime that has no restrictions for its victims on their race, gender, economic status, or other identifiable traits. That means a broad-shouldered man with no signs of bruising or pain save for the slight tremble in his hands from the caffeine used to fuel his 19-hour no-pay shifts, is a victim of human trafficking. So too is the South Asian woman who tailors clothes day and night in a dark basement because the owner holds her ID and papers. All these examples simply confirm the truth of this hidden global epidemic: human trafficking can happen to anyone, anywhere.
The statistics of human trafficking, quantified by the International Labour Organization (ILO) and the Walk Free Foundation, found that at any time in 2021, 27.6 million people worldwide were in forced labor. Its market value of $236 billion a year places it as the second-most profitable industry in the world. Furthermore, the Global Slavery Index USA Country Study found that approximately 1,091,000 people are being trafficked in the United States alone. This places the US as one of the largest markets and destinations for trafficking, second only to Germany.
Out of all the fifty states, California, with 13% of the total cases reported, consistently has the highest human trafficking rates. Due to its strategic proximity to international borders, number of airports, diverse population, and profitable economy, Los Angeles remains the city with the second highest human trafficking rates in the US.
It is important to note that these figures are estimates and likely underestimate the actual numbers. Without a nationally aggregated database and a standardized method of reporting cases, the exact number of human trafficking victims remains at large.
Still, for every human trafficking victim, there are a few individuals they encounter while being held captive. Outside of the pimp or perpetrator’s circle of clients or other trafficked victims, only necessary interactions are allowed, with one being a healthcare provider. Even with this exception, traffickers are careful to craft and maintain a “harmless but worried” front in the hospital setting, where they often pose as the victim’s family member or loved one. Likewise, the trafficked patient is forced via psychological manipulation, physical threats of violence, or economic abuse, to follow their offender’s lead by any means necessary, thus making it difficult for social service providers or law enforcement to provide proper aid.
Nonetheless, healthcare providers have a unique privilege in that they can interact and intervene in the victim’s lives while they are actively being trafficked. Aware of this distinct advantage, many organizations, such as the National Human Trafficking Resource Center and the American Hospital Association, compiled potential red flags for physicians and nurses to look for. If the patient in question exhibited these warning signs, healthcare professionals would then advance to a yes-or-no questionnaire to properly assess the severity of the problem. Some examples of these questions included: Have you ever had sex in exchange for food or shelter? and Does an employer control your wages, housing, or transportation? After analyzing their responses to the questions, the doctors or other healthcare personnel would refer the victim to specific agencies for proper care.
The problem with these red flags and yes-or-no style questions is that they arbitrarily invalidate the experiences of human trafficking victims and fail to consider the nuances of each case. Failure to meet one of these “red flags” during screening doesn’t necessarily mean that the individual is not being trafficked, but the screening process currently put in place states otherwise. Though the “indicators” used to identify human trafficking victims can be helpful, they often reinforce discriminatory stereotypes that are fundamentally racist, gender-biased, and aporophobic.
To mitigate this issue, the OVC Human Trafficking Collective has put together a pre-screening guide accompaniment that focuses on supporting the person as a whole rather than only as a victim. Broader questions such as How have you been caring for yourself when you’re hungry or need somewhere to stay? and Do you understand your rights as a worker? Would you like me to explain them? have significantly widened the quantity and quality of care human trafficked people can receive. With efforts like these, there is hope that many trafficking victims will finally be rescued from a life of abuse, forced labor, and trauma.
As healthcare providers, it’s difficult to actively prevent potential victims from falling into the hands of their traffickers, apprehend these criminal human traffickers, or execute justice on the perpetrators after they’ve been caught. But one cannot and must not underestimate the power of medical providers in ending human trafficking and saving lives, as untraditional as it may be. For victims drowning in a world of exploitation and assault, healthcare providers are the bridge that leads them to hope and security, the solid hand that gives them life and life abundantly. And with every life that’s saved and every victim who’s rescued, those efforts bring the world one step closer to eradicating human trafficking.
Yena is a student at UCLA and is currently a Summer 2024 THINQ intern.
Sources:
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Hewitt, Adam. “More than 1 Million Human Trafficking Victims in USA — New Study.” Hope for Justice, 1 June 2023, hopeforjustice.org/news/more-than-1-million-human-trafficking-victims-in-usa-new-study/.
International Labour Organization. Global Measures of Modern Slavery. ILO, 2021, https://www.ilo.org/sites/default/files/wcmsp5/groups/public/@ed_norm/@ipec/documents/publication/wcms_854733.pdf.
Mizus M, Moody M, Privado C, Douglas C. “Germany, US receive most sex-trafficked women.” Off Our Backs. 2003:33
National Human Trafficking Hotline. Framework for a Human Trafficking Protocol in Healthcare Settings. Polaris Project, 2017, https://humantraffickinghotline.org/sites/default/files/Framework%20for%20a%20Human%20Trafficking%20Protocol%20in%20Healthcare%20Settings.pdf.
OVC Human Trafficking Collective. “Shifting Current Practices in the Anti-Trafficking Field.” OVC HTC, 6 Aug. 2024.
OVC Human Trafficking Collective. “Supporting the Whole Person: A Pre-Screening Guide Accompaniment.” OVC HTC, 6 Aug. 2024.
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United States Department of Justice. “Human Trafficking | What is Human Trafficking?” U.S. Department of Justice, 26 June 2023, www.justice.gov/humantrafficking/what-is-human-trafficking.
