Texas Attorney General Paxton on human trafficking

Information on the effort to stop human trafficking in Texas provided by the Texas Attorney General’s office:

• Texas has the 2^nd highest number of calls to the National Human Trafficking Resource Center hotline.
• Houston has the highest number of trafficking victims in the nation.
• Human Trafficking does not require movement of the victim.
• Human Trafficking is not smuggling. Smuggling is a voluntary contract between 2 parties to cross an international border illegally.
• In 2014, the International Labour Organization (ILO) estimated that forced labor generated $150 billion in profits worldwide.
• The ILO estimates that there are 20.9 million victims of human trafficking worldwide: 5.5 million of those are children, 14.2 million of those are victims of labor exploitation.
• Traffickers mark their victims with tattoos and brands, this shows the victim is the “possession” of the trafficker.
• Not all human traffickers look like TV pimps. Traffickers include: parents, women, teens, gangs, and strip club owners.
• Texas has four categories of trafficking: adult labor, adult sex, child labor, and child sex.
• Traffickers use charm, kindness, promises of love, cash, cars, cell phones, and isolation to get victims.
• Traffickers recruit victims from schools, courtrooms, bus stations, parks & playgrounds.
• Some red flags for human trafficking include:
  • Evidence of controlling relationship
  • Visible injuries: bruising, swelling, redness
  • Claim of boyfriend or girlfriend relationship with older individual
  • Fake or no identification
• An individual can be trafficked into any industry or type of work.  Legally, someone is trafficked if force, fraud or coercion are applied to make the trafficked person work or if a child under the age of 18 is trafficked for sex by any means, regardless of whether the trafficker has to use force, fraud or coercion.
• To find more statistics about human trafficking visit: https://www.polarisproject.org/human-trafficking/resources
• Texas statistics on human trafficking can be found here: http://traffickingresourcecenter.org/state/texas
• What can you do if you suspect someone is being trafficked? REPORT IT! Notify local law enforcement or call 1-888-373-7888