Some of the traps that traffickers use are physical. They keep their victims in squalor, in small, fetid rooms or closets, or even huts. Or worse, in cages outdoors like an animal. Some use traps like drug addictions, beatings, and threats. In some places, other things being illegal exacerbates the problem, allowing a trafficker that much more control over the victim, tricking them into believing that neither family, friends, nor the law, can help them out of their situation. The only way to help those in need is to shine a light into these dark places and help the victims escape.
Frequently, the traffickers are of the same ethnicity as their victims. They may make this part of their entrapment tactics. Many tactics are to trap people in slavery. They might target people that don't know the native language, get a person addicted to drugs, blackmail them, or threaten their family. Promised a job and wealth, many of the victims believe they cannot be helped, and many don't realize there is help.
There are an estimated 20.9 million victims of human trafficking each year. An estimated 55% of these victims are women and children. Many of them have no way out, and some can't get legal help for a wide variety of reasons, leaving many victims permanently trapped in a vicious cycle.
