There is approximately up to 20.9-27 million people8,13 in modern-day slavery at this moment.

One of the most horrendous human trafficking activities occurring today involves the notorious sex slave trade, besides the labor trafficking aspect of human trafficking.

Just in 2005, 1 million children were exploited by the global commercial sex trade8 and that number may have increased due to escort services or agencies on classified-ads websites such as Backpage.com.9

Did you know 80-85% of women and children1, 3 make up the majority of the victims of the sex slave trade of human trafficking?

Force, fraud, or coercion10 are means to what human traffickers utilize to take advantage of victims due to their vulnerable circumstances.

Human traffickers force victims into situations to perform to sexual acts against their will. The victims endure a seemingly never-ending nightmare of the same endless vicious cycle from one customer to the next 2 and itdoes not end with the forced sexual servitude.

Victims of human trafficking are suffering emotionally and physically on a daily basis.  The victims are not free to go anywhere and are constantly under surveillance when they are not with a customer. The threats of constant verbal, mental, and/or physical abuse surround them constantly. A few examples of how the human traffickers keep the victims under control4 include:

·         ensuring victims are dependent on the traffickers for basic human necessities such as food, water, and shelter;

·         threats made to their family;

·         minimal contact is isolate them;

·         an ever-escalating unreasonable high debt the victims are forced to work to repay;

·         and much more.

These victims of human trafficking, mostly woman and children, do not even own their own bodies. Human trafficking victims have nobody, but their abusive human traffickers, and customers that may or may not be aware of the victims’ circumstances.3 The victims’ basic human rights are being clearly violated by the atrocious acts being inflicted on them.

Ever since I learned about human trafficking I wanted to get the victims out of the horrible situations they are in and get the help they need. I was haunted by the reality all these women, children, and occasionally men faced in the sex slave trade especially. These victims are forcefully assaulted and, "sold by the hour to men of different colors and creeds, rich and poor, grandfathers, husbands, fathers, sons. Sometimes [the] shifts lasted 24 hours...break[ing them] beyond repair..."4

That is why we need to do more to end human trafficking now.

This is our chance, with your help, to take action in this growing modern day abolitionist movement to stop these atrocities.

YOU CAN HELP make this a success to show there is more hope for humanity with people like us working together to end human trafficking.

I have included additional solutions besides signing this petition, and resources near the end of this, and I would appreciate it if you can please spread the word and share the resources with your family and friends to raise more awareness, inform yourself more on the issue, and some other easy solutions you can also do So TOGETHER WE CAN END HUMAN TRAFFICKING.

Please sign this petition and share this with your family and friends, to urge Texas law makers to create and pass a law requiring many places throughout Texas to display a message with multiple translations containing the national human trafficking hotline number. In addition to that requirement, certain serious consequences should be implemented if businesses do not comply.

With your support, I hope a law will be passed before you know it, and the message with the national human trafficking hotline number will be seen all throughout Texas, and eventually throughout the rest of the United States.

The publicly displayed message will:

1) enable the victims to hopefully obtain a phone to call and be rescued from their human traffickers or have other resources available to assist them,

2) and allow and inform other individuals on a way to reporting such activities to the right sources to ensure some form of resolution will occur to get rid of the human trafficking activity they came across.

A Department of Justice report 2004 report estimated that one quarter of all trafficking victims in the U.S. end up in Texas.4 It has been almost a decade and this crime is still thriving and may have grown.

 

I hope Texas will footsteps of what the state of Georgia has done14, in drafting a bill that was passed into law for the entire state of Texas, requiring places7 such as:

•           hotel/ motels,

•           brothels,

•           adult entertainment establishments,

•           bars,

•           restaurants,

•           bus stations and stops,

•           airports,

•           truck shops,

•           emergency rooms,

•           and so on

 

to display a message with the national human trafficking hotline number.

The message that can be exact or similar to the lines of,

 “Are you being forced to do anything you do not want to do? Have you been threatened if you try to leave? Have you witnessed young girls being prostituted?6 If so, please call 1-888-3737-888[or text INFO or HELP to Befree (233733).]”

or

 “Are you or someone you know being sold for sex or forced to work with little to no pay and cannot leave?”7 in locations that is easily visible to everyone.

Another requirement is to have translated versions below the English message. Hopefully including Vietnamese and Thai4, besides having the translated message in the top 10 languages1,5  spoken by the human trafficking survivors that  contacted the national human trafficking hotline number.

The displayed message will enable these victims that see the information and will hopefully be able to get a hold of a phone to text or call to the National Human Trafficking Resource Center, and be immediately extracted from the situation the victims are trapped in or obtain other assistance.

If the non-compliant business does not to post up the message in a clearly visible spot after being informed electronically or by mail, an unexpected onsite inspection, and a written notice to give them 30 days to comply, enforcement of one or more of the following are some recommended consequences7 the business should face:

1) a fine of $8,000 or even a $80,000 fine , since it is a 32 billion US dollar industry,11  a more severe fine will send a serious message,

2) filing a nuisance abatement suit,12

3) and forcing closure of businesses due to multiple violations.

Besides the sex slave trade there is the labor trafficking aspect of human trafficking.

The US Department of Labor has identified 122 goods produced with forced labor, child labor, or both, in 58 countries.8

We cannot ignore this because what we purchase may be from a supply source that involves forced, inhumane, and dangerous labor practices.

It starts with us being responsible, informed, and conscientious consumers. Let your hard earned income be your consumer power in refusing to support companies that do not care about their workers and exploit them instead.

http://slaveryfootprint.org/You may be supporting human trafficking with your hard earned income with certain products you purchase and not know it. See how you are connected to modern day slavery.

Download the FREE2WORK app to your smart phone or look up companies at http://www.free2work.org/ to learn what companies are or are not addressing human trafficking in their supply chain.

A video clip of a documentary on the reality of chocolate and the link in child labor to human trafficking. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bFE0eFe1sxA

Please consider purchasing fair trade chocolate whenever possible.

 

Please save this number to your phone, 

National Human Trafficking Resource Center: 1-888-373-7888 or text HELP or INFO to BeFree (233733).

You never know when one day you may need to:

·         Report a tip;

·         Connect with anti-trafficking services in your area for a victim that needs assistance;

·         Would like to request training and technical assistance, general information or specific anti-trafficking resources.

http://www.polarisproject.org/what-we-do/national-human-trafficking-hotline/the-nhtrc/overview

I encourage you to learn more about human trafficking by visiting these websites. There are, of course, plenty of other resources in addition to the ones listed below.

http://slaverymap.org/ A map that shows reported incidents of human trafficking in the United States and globally.

http://www.polarisproject.org/​

http://www.notforsalecampaign.org/​

http://mtvexit.org/​

http://www.lasterglobal.com/​

http://www.houstonrr.org/take-action/ways-to-give/

 

In the meantime before this law comes into existence, I am also trying to raise funds for a human trafficking service project to purchase bars of soap with a message that includes the human trafficking number on the soap to distribute to certain designated places and if you are interested in supporting it, please check out my fundraising page at http://www.gofundme.com/freetraffickingvictims

Please spread the word and share the resources with your family and friends so TOGETHER WE CAN END HUMAN TRAFFICKING in our generation!

Thank you so much for doing all you can to help end human trafficking!

 

Sources:

1) http://www.polarisproject.org/resources/hotline-statistics/human-trafficking-trends-in-the-united-states

2) http://www.bostonglobe.com/metro/2013/08/19/trafficking/WcFRNTDtVpsKN57pazM7GL/story.html

3) https://sites.google.com/site/lasterglobalconsulting/Home/films (warning violence and very strong language)

4) http://www.texasmonthly.com/story/lost-girls?fullpage=1

5) http://m.yourhoustonnews.com/mobile/courier/news/the-cantinera-exposes-human-trafficking-niche/article_1c562ee5-3b80-5227-ab33-c6140c93e278.html

6) http://www.traffickfree.com/Shop.html

7) http://www.nbc26.tv/story/23571488/local-businesses-unaware-of-new-georgia-law-aimed-to-help-sex-trafficking-victims

8) http://www.polarisproject.org/human-trafficking/international-trafficking

9) http://www.startribune.com/local/minneapolis/158383545.html

10) http://www.polarisproject.org/human-trafficking/human-trafficking-faqs#Is%20human%20trafficking%20another%20word%20for%20smuggling

11) http://www.unodc.org/documents/human-trafficking/UNVTF_fs_HT_EN.pdf

12) https://www.harriscountytx.gov/coatty/humantrafficking.aspx

13) http://www.nova.edu/hs/humantrafficking/forms/section1.pdf

14) http://gbi.georgia.gov/press-releases/2013-09-12/human-trafficking-notice-law-goes-effect