The Abandoned

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.

Isolation

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.

The Trap

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.

Desparation

Men, women, and chilrden being sold as slaves frequently don't believe they have a way out. Most are victims of abuse, and many, especially women and children, become sex slaves. In the United States, many trafficking victims are forced into prostitution, leading dangerous lives and existing at the mercy of their captors.

Exit

Trafficked women are treated like little more than property. This leads to many side effects, including mental distress, shame, grief, fear, distrust, and suicidal thoughts. Victims may turn to drugs and alcohol in order to cope with their pain, and many develop post traumatic stress disorder.

Melancholy

Human trafficking leads to other problems, too. Where trafficking goes, violent crime follows. Human trafficking draws criminals of the worst kinds. Where one black market exists, others follow, creating even more victims and violence.

Hope

Just Art has hosted fundraisers for Project FIGHT for several years now, with artists contributing work to auction for charity. FIGHT stands for Freeing Individuals Gripped by Human Trafficking. Project FIGHT is a division of the Salvation Army that exists solely to serve and help those who are victims of human trafficking, helping people to find hope again. To find life again.