HUMAN TRAFFICKING

HUMAN TRAFFICKING. Human trafficking is the process of trapping people through the use of violence, deception or coercion and exploiting them for financial or personal gain.

What trafficking really means is girls groomed and forced into sexual exploitation; men tricked into accepting risky job offers and trapped in forced labor in building sites, farms or factories; and women recruited to work in private homes only to be trapped, exploited and abused behind closed doors with no way out.

People do not have to be transported across borders for trafficking to take place. In fact, transporting or moving the victim does not define trafficking – it can take place within a single country, or even within a single community.

People can be trafficked and exploited in many forms, including being forced into sexual exploitation, labor, begging, crime (such as growing cannabis or dealing drugs), domestic servitude, marriage or organ removal.

   Human trafficking in numbers

       51% of identified victims of trafficking are women, 28% children and 21% men
       72% people exploited in the sex industry are women
       63% of identified traffickers were men and 37% women
       43% of victims are trafficked domestically within national borders (1)

The U. S. State Department estimates as many as 25 million people worldwide are trafficking victims. The U. S. National Human Trafficking Hotline shows nearly 17,000 victims of human trafficking were identified in the United States in 2020.

During the week of February 7, 2022 local law enforcement officials of the Dubuque County Sheriff's Department, DUBUQUE POLICE DEPARTMENT, and the Iowa State Patrol conducted a two-day sting operation. They arrested eleven men, including the county treasurer, on prostitution charges. They set up an offer for sexual services on a website and then arrested those who showed up. Seven of the men were Dubuque county residents while others came from Jackson County in Iowa and Dane and Grant counties in Wisconsin. Websites like the one established are sometimes used for selling sexual services of minors, of people being trafficked, or both. (2)

In April, 2022 the Spartan Nation Liberation Foundation, an organization at the UNIVERSITY OF DUBUQUE dedicated to combating human trafficking, planned a 5K run and walk at the DUBUQUE REGIONAL AIRPORT. Participants would run the runways and taxiways at the airport in a 5K course and a 1K fun run/walk course. (3)

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Source:

1. Estimates by The United Nations Office for Drugs and Crime (UNODC)

2. "Sting Breaches Threat of Local Human Trafficking," Telegraph Herald editorial, February 16, 2022, p. 4a

3. "Event at Airport to Raise Funds for Fight Against Human Trafficking," Telegraph Herald, March 13, 2022, p. 12A