Bringing Awareness to Human Trafficking Month

 Written by:  Eleanor Leituposa, Media 
January is Human Trafficking Awareness month.  The purpose is to raise
 Awareness that it is a business practice based on stealing people’s freedoms for profit.  Traffickers use tricks to defraud or physically force victims to sell their bodies for sex.  Victims can be told various lies, assaulted, threatened, or manipulated to move to unsafe spaces.  Human Trafficking is a serious crime that can destroy a victim’s dignity, and fundamental rights.  Traffickers will use criminal exploitation of vulnerable people because victims are described as poor, have limited English proficiency, are transgender youth, or domestic caregivers and they are vulnerable. 
 
It is important to note, American Samoa is not unaffected by human trafficking.  There are reports where young women from Samoa are brought to American Samoa for domestic chores and can be subjected to sex trafficking.  In 2007, five (5) Chinese national were jailed for trafficking Chinese women into the country to work as prostitutes in bars and nightclubs. 
In January 2010 it was alleged trafficking victims came into the territory without necessary immigration checks.  Human Trafficking happens here in the territory. 
 
Please be aware that human trafficking promotes sexual assault, and it is important to become informed to spot the signs of trafficking.  Here are indicators of human trafficking: Individuals living with their employer, living within poor conditions (i.e. multiple people in cramped space, no bathrooms, no running water, no electricity, etc), they are not allowed to speak to anyone, and employer is holding identity documents.  Additional signs can be signs of physical abuse, they are unpaid or paid very little, and can be under 18. 
 
Now is the time to educate about human trafficking and discover the signs of trafficking. These messages should be shared in our workplaces, our churches, our schools, our representatives, and everywhere else.
Photo retrieved from:  ​https://pixabay.com/photos/prison-prisoner-slavery-162885/