Human Trafficking Symposium

Human trafficking is a global issue that affects millions of people, fueled by factors such as poverty, inequality, and demand for cheap labor or commercial sex. Human trafficking is a severe and pervasive crime that involves the exploitation of individuals through force, fraud, or coercion for various purposes, including forced labor, sexual exploitation, and involuntary servitude. It is a violation of basic human rights and is considered a form of modern-day slavery.

Key indicators of human trafficking are: 

1. Recruitment: Traffickers recruit individuals using various means, including deception, promises of better opportunities, or abduction.
2. Transportation: Victims are often moved across borders or within a country to the location where they will be exploited.
3. Exploitation: This can take many forms, such as forced labor, sexual exploitation, domestic servitude, child soldiers, or forced participation in criminal activities.
4. Control: Traffickers use tactics such as physical and emotional abuse, threats, isolation, and debt bondage to maintain control over their victims.

Efforts to combat human trafficking involve prevention, victim identification and support, prosecution of traffickers, and addressing the root causes that make individuals vulnerable to exploitation. International and national organizations, as well as law enforcement agencies, work collaboratively to raise awareness, enforce laws, and provide assistance to survivors of trafficking.

Is Human Trafficking common in Central Georgia and the Macon Judicial Circuit? 

According to Traffick Jam surveys, central Georgia high schoolers report one in nine students knows someone has sold themselves for sex, and one in 14 students knows someone who has been forced into selling themselves for sex. The number are even more grave when considering that 84% of human trafficking victims were also victims of childhood sexual assault. Considering 2023 case numbers for the Macon Judicial Circuit (encompassing Bibb, Crawford, and Peach Counties), there were 126 reported cases of child sexual assault. Considering that sample, proportions, and the common issue of under-reporting, that means in 2023 alone, our community holds 150 future victims of human trafficking. 

Human trafficking is a major concern in our community, and each of us can play a part in reducing those figures by paying attention, and stepping in to the lives of those in danger by doing something, often just by saying something.