Forced sex labor can happen to anyone, but there are some people who are more at risk to be sexually trafficked than others. According to End Slavery NOW, there are currently about 4.5 million victims. This image shows the power and control the traffickers have/use over their victims:
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Those that have a higher risk of being trafficked include:
- Women
- Children
- Those living in poverty
Women may be offered a job to either nanny, work as a waitress, or model. These, however, are false jobs. This is used as a way to lure the women in who are then coerced and forced into sex work. This is a beginning to sexual trafficking. These women are then bounced around from trafficker to trafficker. Many are scared to leave due to “debt” that is owed or threats of them or their families being harmed/killed.
Children can be an easy target for traffickers. According to the second video on the first page, children can be lured into forced sex work through a variety of means. It can begin through a family member who is already sexually abusing them, or it could happen over the internet. This relationship builds trust with the child. The child is then coerced by getting drugs and alcohol supplied to them, the trafficker would stand in as if they are protecting the child from an already dangerous home, or the trafficker has promised them a job as a model or the like. There are many different ways this could occur and begin a vicious cycle of sex trafficking. See below a documentary on a woman who was trafficked as a teenager.
Those who live in poverty are also at a high risk to be forced into sex labor. According to End Slavery NOW, those that are in poverty are “typically economically and politically marginalized causing many to lack rights and access to basic services such as education. This makes them particularly vulnerable to sex trafficking.” Therefore, many times people in poverty are offered jobs in bigger cities with promises of high pay. When the victims arrive at what they believe is their new job, they are abused and forced into sexual labor.