Worldwide, human trafficking is a multi-billion dollar industry. Traffickers dehumanize their victims by seeing them as dollar signs rather than human beings.
Traffickers prey on vulnerable youth. They use manipulation to recruit lonely and disconnected children. Those in foster care become primary targets.
Victims may be mislabeled as something else, a runaway or juvenile delinquent. Boys are often missed due to an assumption that all victims are girls!
Much of the trafficking of children is taking place online via social media apps and the internet; children are being lied to, manipulated and lured into false romantic relationships. Online classified sites allow traffickers and buyers anonymity and accessibility when exploiting children.
In some cases, there is no identified trafficker, and it is the person buying sex from the child who is exploiting the child’s vulnerabilities.
Trafficking from a young age can lead to a lifetime of insecurity and inability to establish and adapt to healthy and regulated lifestyles due to the variety of traumas caused by trafficking which include but are not limited to drug abuse, physical harm, lack of trust, and so much more. Here at Harbour Hope, we are diligently working with individuals who have been trafficked in their youth in order to break them free from the bondage they have been wrapped in.
