By Vanessa Rorai
This week I had the privilege of attending a forum held at Wayne State University on the topic of human trafficking. This event not only changed my entire idea and understanding of human trafficking, it gave me a great sense of empowerment to make even the slightest change to this huge social problem. The panel of speakers gave diverse perspectives from a legal, educational, research, and treatment standpoint. All speakers emphasized three ways anyone can do something about human trafficking: awareness, activism, and advancement.
I would like to share a few facts I learned at this event that raised my awareness. First, the average age of a person being trafficked is 12 years old. Trafficking generates $32 billion dollars a year, which is more than the revenue of the NFL, NBA, MLB, and NHL combined. I found it exceptionally interesting when one speaker discussed the ‘conditioning’ process trafficker’s use on their victims, and how it differs from the most common trafficking processes occurring in Detroit. Generally a trafficker will spend a lot of time and effort in getting to know their victim, become trusted, and eventually function as the main source of support in every facet of the victim’s life. In Detroit, it typically occurs fast and spawns out of opportunity. It is the nature of the situation that turns to opportunity for the trafficker to start using the individual to make money.
There is much room for activism against human trafficking. Anyone can volunteer to fundraise for treatment programs, or raise awareness by having a conversation with another person. Although Michigan currently has safe harbor laws, there are 32 states that do not. Thus, there is room for activism in improving the current laws of Michigan and supporting other states to adopt safe harbor laws.
Anyone can advance the idea of decreasing and ending human trafficking. The speakers targeted the students in the audience like myself as key individuals that can choose careers that advance awareness and activism against human trafficking such as law enforcement, treatment counselors, researchers, educators, and social workers.
Thus, this leads me to my conclusion of what all social workers can do in the fight to end human trafficking. First, social workers need to be aware of this social problem by knowing the signs of a trafficker and victim, where opportunity for trafficking exists, and realize that trafficking has no boundaries to gender, age, or location. Regardless of what population or area a social worker works within, there is a high likelihood of coming into contact with a current or previous victim. Thus, social workers must know how to advocate for a victim, what resources are available, and how to connect that individual to the services they may need. Anyone can raise awareness through conversation; social workers are perfect to start this necessary conversation.
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