Join the fight to stop human trafficking

What if I told you that your local truck stop is highly trafficking individuals with the use of coercion, and manipulation?

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It’s late at night, you’ve been on the road all afternoon, Easter break is over and you’re ready to finish out the semester strong, with the three weeks that are left in it. You look to the gage and notice that you need a refill, the closest exit is just ahead, and you pull in and go about with your business. But, what if I told you that a young individual around your age is either being smuggled or coerced into a sex life, while you’re pre-paying on pump twelve at the closest truck stop. The proper title as it is known for occurrence, across all fifty states is human trafficking. Human trafficking, is considered a type of slavery involving smuggling and the trading of people, who are forced to labor through sexual exploration.

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        Now, what are you to do if you become a bystander to one who is being trafficked? How are you to know what a victim of human trafficking resembles? Be aware for those who are in need of help, through being vigilant to those around you. Those who become victims are ones who are in the poverty level of living. Those who are vulnerable, and it is not necessarily considered an abduction, but rather the wearing down of a person’s vulnerability. Victims are chosen through a three step procedure according to film maker, and human trafficking activist Pearl Gluck, who currently, directed a film/documentary pertaining to the act’s and procedures a victim of sex trafficking endures. The film, is called “The Turn Out, which provides a story of trafficked women.

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Gluck explained her one on one experience with actual victims. She stated,

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“As a director, and to have had the opportunity to collaborate with those who were victimized in this crises, was surreal nonetheless, and very emotional at times throughout sets.”

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Victims feel helpless, and out of touch with their outer surroundings.

What can be done for those who are victims of human trafficking? At times, it is known that victims have difficulties working with the court system simply because they feel as if they will go to jail, for all the wrong acts that they have committed. The victims within the court system, are looked at from a criminal aspect rather than victimization, according to Gluck. Several resources are offered to victims, including social agencies, Civil Rights Program, Violate Crimes Against Children, and one’s closet county Crime Victim Center. If you know of one who is trafficked, you can reach out and call the National Human Trafficking Resource Center, at 1.888.3737.888.