Human Trafficking
Every 30 seconds another person is enslaved in sex trafficking. As Edmond Burke once said, “Evil triumphs when good men do nothing.” Let’s partner
together and stop this injustice. For every dollar that comes to MarriageNow, 5% is directly given to stop human trafficking in its tracks.
We partner with those who are strategically placed in various parts of the world that are major hubs for sex trafficking. Places like Thailand, Philippians, Ukraine, Great Britain, South Africa, Norway, Australia, Greece, and right here in the U.S.A. Right
here in Atlanta human traffickers are at work. There are shelters for those rescued (sometimes bought back) and provide not only a place to stay, but also provide spiritual
and emotional counseling. Much healing is needed to take place as they assimilate We also need to join in prayer for wisdom for rescuers and for God’s power to intervene.
We need to pray for those who will be set free from the emotional trauma associated Freedom and Justice for All!
The U.S. stands for freedom and justice for all. Unfortunately, countless thousands are subjected against their will to serve as slaves. MarriageNow is committed to freeing girls
and women who are forced to serve as sex slaves. This also includes men and boys and those who are subjected to forced labor. We also seek to prosecute the guilty of
such crimes against humanity.
Victims often are forced to serve anywhere from 40-100 customers in a single day. Women are left worn out, sleep deprived, malnourished, abused physically and
emotionally, and forced to live in crammed, unsanitary quarters. These women are beaten, raped, and completely broken down.
Human trafficking is organized crime that is found in every nation. Human trafficking has been identified as the largest human rights violation in the history of mankind.
Here are some shocking facts everyone needs to know about. Human trafficking, by the
1. More than 100,000 minors are trafficked in the U.S. each year.
2. Globally, the average cost of a slave is $90.
3. Trafficking primarily involves exploitation which comes in many forms, including:
forcing victims into prostitution, subjecting victims to slavery or involuntary servitude
and compelling victims to commit sex acts for the purpose of creating pornography.
4. According to some estimates, approximately 80% of trafficking involves sexual
exploitation, and 19% involves labor exploitation.
5. There are approximately 20 to 30 million slaves in the world today.
6. According to the U.S. State Department, 600,000 to 800,000 people are trafficked
across international borders every year. More than 70% are female and half are
7. The average age a teen enters the sex trade in the U.S. is 12 to 14-year-old. Many
victims are runaway girls who were sexually abused as children.
8. California harbors 3 of the FBI’s 13 highest child sex trafficking areas on the nation:
Los Angeles, San Francisco and San Diego.
9. The National Human Trafficking Hotline receives more calls from Texas than any
other state in the US. 15% of those calls are from the Dallas-Fort Worth area.
10. Between 14,500 and 17,500 people are trafficked into the U.S. each year.
11. Human trafficking is the third largest international crime industry (behind illegal
drugs and arms trafficking). It reportedly generates a profit of $32 billion every year.
Of that number, $15.5 billion is made in industrialized countries.
12. The International Labour Organization estimates that women and girls represent
the largest share of forced labor victims with 11.4 million trafficked victims (55%)
compared to 9.5 million (45%) men.
13. Trafficked children are significantly more likely to develop mental health
problems, abuse substances, engage in prostitution as adults, and either commit or
be victimized by violent crimes later in life.
14. Human trafficking is the second largest criminal enterprise in the world, after
drug smuggling and arms dealing.
15. According to estimates, approximately 80 percent of trafficking involves sexual
exploitation, and 19 percent involves labor exploitation.
16. Immigration agents estimate that 10,000 women are being held in Los Angeles’
underground brothels; this does not include the thousands of victims in domestic
work, sweatshops or other informal industries.
17. An estimated 13 million children are enslaved around the world today,
accounting for nearly half of trafficking victims in the world.
18. The United States is one of the top three destination points for trafficked victims.
California, New York, Texas and Nevada are the top destination states within the
Our goal is not only return freedom to those who were oppressed, but also bring back
their emotional and mental health.
1 National Center for Missing and Exploited Children.
2 “Modern Slavery.” Free the Slaves. Accessed February 25, 2014, https://www.freetheslaves.net/
3 “UNODC on human trafficking and migrant smuggling”. Unodc.org. 2011. Accessed February 25, 2014.
4 “Human Trafficking Facts.” National Coalition Against Domestic Violence. Accessed February 25, 2014,
http://www.ncadv.org/files/HumanTrafficking.pdf.
5 Bales, Kevin. “The Number.” The CNN Freedom Project Ending Modern Day Slavery. Accessed
February 25, 2014, http://thecnnfreedomproject.blogs.cnn.com/category/the-facts/the-number/.
6 “TRAFFICKING IN PERSONS REPORT.” United States Department. Accessed February 25, 2014,
http://www.state.gov/documents/organization/34158.pdf.
7 Clawson, Heather J., Nicole Dutch, Amy Solomon, and Lisa Goldblatt Grace. “Human Trafficking Into
and Within the United States: A Review of the Literature.” Study of HHS Programs Serving Human
Trafficking Victims. Accessed February 25, 2014, http://aspe.hhs.gov/hsp/07/humantrafficking/LitRev/.
More Shocking Facts About Human Trafficking:
1. Approximately 75-80% of human trafficking is for sex.a
2. Researchers note that sex trafficking plays a major role in the spread of HIV.b
3. There are more human slaves in the world today than ever before in history.l
4. There are an estimated 27 million adults and 13 million children around the world
who are victims of human trafficking.l
5. Human trafficking not only involves sex and labor, but people are also trafficked for
6. Human traffickers often use a Sudanese phrase “use a slave to catch slaves,”
meaning traffickers send “broken-in girls” to recruit younger girls into the sex
trade. Sex traffickers often train girls themselves, raping them and teaching them
7. Eighty percent of North Koreans who escape into China are women. Nine out of 10
of those women become victims of human trafficking, often for sex. If the women
complain, they are deported back to North Korea, where they are thrown into
gulags or are executed.h
8. Approximately 30,000 victims of sex trafficking die each year
9. An estimated 30,000 victims of sex trafficking die each year from abuse, disease,
torture, and neglect. Eighty percent of those sold into sexual slavery are under
24, and some are as young as six years old.j
10. Ludwig “Tarzan” Fainberg, a convicted trafficker, said, “You can buy a woman for
$10,000 and make your money back in a week if she is pretty and young. Then
everything else is profit.”l
11. A human trafficker can earn 20 times what he or she paid for a girl. Provided
the girl was not physically brutalized to the point of ruining her beauty, the pimp
could sell her again for a greater price because he had trained her and broken
her spirit, which saves future buyers the hassle. A 2003 study in the Netherlands
found that, on average, a single sex slave earned her pimp at least $250,000 a
12. Although human trafficking is often a hidden crime and accurate statistics are
difficult to obtain, researchers estimate that more than 80% of trafficking victims
are female. Over 50% of human trafficking victims are children.l
13. The end of the Cold War has resulted in the growth of regional conflicts and the
decline of borders. Many rebel groups turn to human trafficking to fund military
actions and garner soldiers.k
14. According to a 2009 Washington Times article, the Taliban buys children as
young as seven years old to act as suicide bombers. The price for child suicide
bombers is between $7,000-$14,000.n
15. UNICEF estimates that 300,000 children younger than 18 are currently trafficked
to serve in armed conflicts worldwide.n
16. Pregnant women are increasingly being trafficked for their newborns
17. Human traffickers are increasingly trafficking pregnant women for their newborns.
Babies are sold on the black market, where the profit is divided between the
traffickers, doctors, lawyers, border officials, and others. The mother is usually
paid less than what is promised her, citing the cost of travel and creating false
documents. A mother might receive as little as a few hundred dollars for her
18. More than 30% of all trafficking cases in 2007-2008 involved children being sold
into the sex industry.o
19. The Western presence in Kosovo, such as NATO troops and civilians, have
fueled the rapid growth of sex trafficking and forced prostitution. Amnesty
International has reported that NATO soldiers, UN police, and Western aid
workers “operated with near impunity in exploiting the victims of the sex
20. Lady Gaga’s “Bad Romance” video is about human trafficking. In the video, Gaga
is trafficked by a Russian bathhouse into sex slavery.f
21. Human trafficking is the only area of transnational crime in which women are
significantly represented—as victims, as perpetrators, and as activists fighting
22. Droughts and severe natural disasters have left millions homeless and
impoverished, which has created desperate people easily exploited by human
23. Over 71% of trafficked children show suicidal tendencies.l
24. After sex, the most common form of human trafficking is forced labor.
Researchers argue that as the economic crisis deepens, the number of people
trafficked for forced labor will increase.k
25. Most human trafficking in the United States occurs in New York, California, and
26. According to United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), over the past 30 years,
over 30 million children have been sexually exploited through human trafficking.k
27. Several countries rank high as source countries for human trafficking, including
Belarus, the Republic of Moldova, the Russian Federation, Ukraine, Albania,
Bulgaria, Lithuania, Romania, China, Thailand, and Nigeria.l
28. Belgium, Germany, Greece, Israel, Italy, Japan, the Netherlands, Thailand,
Turkey, and the U.S. are ranked very high as destination countries of trafficked
29. Women are trafficked to the U.S. largely to work in the sex industry (including
strip clubs, peep and touch shows, massage parlors that offer sexual services,
and prostitution). They are also trafficked to work in sweatshops, domestic
servitude, and agricultural work.l
30. Sex traffickers often use brutal violence to “condition” their victims.
31. Sex traffickers use a variety of ways to “condition” their victims, including
subjecting them to starvation, rape, gang rape, physical abuse, beating,
confinement, threats of violence toward the victim and victim’s family, forced drug
32. Family members will often sell children and other family members into slavery;
the younger the victim, the more money the trafficker receives. For example, a
10-year-old named Gita was sold into a brothel by her aunt. The now 22-year-old
recalls that when she refused to work, the older girls held her down and stuck a
piece of cloth in her mouth so no one would hear her scream as she was raped
by a customer. She would later contract HIV.l
33. Human trafficking is one of the fastest growing criminal enterprises because
it holds relatively low risk with high profit potential. Criminal organizations are
increasingly attracted to human trafficking because, unlike drugs, humans can be
34. Human trafficking is estimated to surpass the drug trade in less than five years.
Journalist Victor Malarek reports that it is primarily men who are driving human
trafficking, specifically trafficking for sex.i
35. Victims of human trafficking suffer devastating physical and psychological harm.
However, due to language barriers, lack of knowledge about available services,
and the frequency with which traffickers move victims, human trafficking victims
and their perpetrators are difficult to catch.i
36. In approximately 54% of human trafficking cases, the recruiter is a stranger,
and in 46% of the cases, the recruiters know the victim. Fifty-two percent of
human trafficking recruiters are men, 42% are women, and 6% are both men and
37. Human trafficking around the globe is estimated to generate a profit of anywhere
from $9 billion to $31.6 billion. Half of these profits are made in industrialized
38. Some human traffickers recruit handicapped young girls, such as those suffering
from Down Syndrome, into the sex industry.l
39. According to the FBI, a large human-trafficking organization in California in
2008 not only physically threatened and beat girls as young as 12 to work as
prostitutes, they also regularly threatened them with witchcraft.e
40. Human trafficking is a global phenomenon that is fueled by poverty and gender
41. Human traffickers often work with corrupt government officials to obtain travel
documents and seize passports.i
42. Women and girls from racial minorities in the U.S. are disproportionately
recruited by sex traffickers in the U.S.l
43. The Sunday Telegraph in the U.K. reports that hundreds of children as young as
six are brought to the U.K. as slaves each year.m
44. Japan is a major hub of sex trafficking
45. Japan is considered the largest market for Asian women trafficked for sex.i
46. Airports are often used by human traffickers to hold “slave auctions,” where
women and children are sold into prostitution.m
47. Due to globalization, every continent of the world has been involved in human
trafficking, including a country as small as Iceland.k
48. Many times, if a sex slave is arrested, she is imprisoned while her trafficker is
able to buy his way out of trouble.l
49. Today, slaves are cheaper than they have ever been in history. The population
explosion has created a great supply of workers, and globalization has created
people who are vulnerable and easily enslaved.l
50. Human trafficking and smuggling are similar but not interchangeable. Smuggling
is transportation based. Trafficking is exploitation based.l
51. Sex traffickers often recruit children because not only are children more
unsuspecting and vulnerable than adults, but there is also a high market demand
for young victims. Traffickers target victims on the telephone, on the Internet,
through friends, at the mall, and in after-school programs.o
52. Human trafficking has been reported in all 50 states, Washington, D.C., and in
some U.S. territories.e
53. The FBI estimates that over 100,000 children and young women are trafficked
in America today. They range in age from nine to 19, with the average being
age 11. Many victims are not just runaways or abandoned, but are from “good”
families who are coerced by clever traffickers.o
54. Brazil and Thailand are generally considered to have the worst child sex
55. The AIDS epidemic in Africa has left many children orphaned, making them
especially vulnerable to human trafficking.l
56. Nearly 7,000 Nepali girls as young as nine years old are sold every year into
India’s red-light district—or 200,000 in the last decade. Ten thousand children
between the ages of six and 14 are in Sri Lanka brothels.j
57. Human trafficking victims face physical risks, such as drug and alcohol addiction,
contracting STDS, sterility, miscarriages, forced abortions, vaginal and anal
trauma, among others. Psychological effects include developing clinical
depression, personality and dissociative disorders, suicidal tendencies, Post-
Traumatic Stress Syndrome, and Complex Post-Traumatic Stress Syndrome.l
58. The largest human trafficking case in recent U.S. history occurred in Hawaii in
2010. Global Horizons Manpower, Inc., a labor-recruiting company, bought 400
immigrants in 2004 from Thailand to work on farms in Hawaii. They were lured
with false promises of high-paying farm work, but instead their passports were
taken away and they were held in forced servitude until they were rescued in
59.
According to the U.S. State Department, human trafficking is one of the greatest
human rights challenges of this century, both in the United States and around the
Aronowitz, Alexis A. 2009. Human Trafficking, Human Misery: The Global Trade in
Human Beings. Santa Barbara, CA: Greenwood Publishing Group.
Destefano, Anthony M. 2007. The War on Human Trafficking. Piscataway, NJ: Rutgers
“Hawaii Home to Largest Human Trafficking Case in U.S. History.” ABC News.
September 2, 2010. Accessed: December 26, 2010.
“Human Trafficking.” Unglobalcompact.org. Accessed: December 26, 2010.
“International Human Trafficking.” FBI. November 23, 2009. Accessed: December 23,
Keehn Anne. “Lady Gaga’s Bad Romance Video About . . . Sex Slavery?”
FTSBlog.net. September 13, 2010. Accessed: December 26, 2010.
“Kosovo U.N. Troops ‘Fuel Sex Trade.’” BBC News. May 6, 2004. Accessed:
Liebelson, Dana. “Nine out of Ten Women Escaping North Korea Are Trafficked.”
Human Trafficking Change. October 29, 2010. Accessed: December 26, 2010.
Malarek, Victor. 2003. The Natashas: Inside the New Global Sex Trade. New York, NY:
“Millions Suffer in Sex Slavery.” NewsMax. April 24, 2001. Accessed: December 26,
Shelley, Louise. 2010. Human Trafficking: A Global Perspective. New York, NY:
Cambridge University Press.
Skinner, E. Benjamin. 2008. A Crime So Monstrous: Face-to-Face with Modern-Day
Slavery. New York, NY: Free Press.
m “Slaves Auctioned by Traffickers.” BBC News. June 4, 2006. Accessed: December 28,
“Taliban Buying Children for Suicide Bombers.” The Washington Times. July 2, 2009.
Accessed: December 29, 2010.
“Teen Girls Stories of Sex Trafficking in the U.S.” ABC News/Primetime. February 9,
2006. Accessed: December 26, 2010.
