Methods of Recruitment

Vulnerability is key. "Traffickers often prey on people who are hoping for a better life, lack employment opportunities, have an unstable home life, or have a history of sexual abuse - conditions that are present in all spheres of society. Certain populations are especially vulnerable. These may include: undocumented immigrants; runaway and homeless youth; victims of trauma and abuse; refugees and individuals fleeing conflict; and oppressed, marginalized, and/or impoverished groups and individuals" (PolarisProject.org).

How do people become victims of human trafficking?
"Traffickers employ a number of different techniques to coerce, deceive, and force people into trafficking" (AIFirefly.org). They take advantage of people weaknesses, hopes, and dreams in order to coerce and deceive potential victims. "Deceptive ads for work abroad in local newspapers, and employment and travel agencies mislead people to believe that they will be migrating for legitimate jobs. Women and children can also be sold into trafficking by family members who have been promised high profit remittances. Often family members are equally deceived about the nature of work in which the women will engage. “Mail-Order Bride” or “marriage agencies,” many of which are operated over the Internet, are other forms of recruitment.

HopeForTheSold.com

However, one of the most common methods of recruitment is through community members, friends, or past victims of trafficking themselves. Victims of sex trafficking often recruit other women as a way to work off their own debt to a trafficker. Many women are aware that they will be working in the sex industries either abroad or domestically but are not aware of the exploitative conditions in which they will work. More forceful recruitment methods such as kidnapping or drugging are also ways in which people are trafficked" (AIFirefly.org).

Why don't victims leave?
"Traffickers use many kinds of tricks to discourage their victims from escaping. One common ploy is to confiscate the victim's passport once he/she is in the destination country, while telling him/her that if he/she escapes, the police will imprison him/her for being an illegal immigrant. Other methods include social isolation, debt bondage, use of physical or emotional violence, threats against the victim or his/her family, imprisonment and torture, shame, and/or use of Voodoo or magic ritual to frighten the victim" (IOMZimbabwe.org).

"Victims of trafficking frequently suffer violent forms of abuse at the hands of their traffickers or those who use their labor services. Debt-servitude also places trafficking victims in situations in which they are trapped and deceived. Victims are expected to pay back exorbitant sums to their traffickers for smuggling fees, housing, doctor’s bills, and/or debt from a drug habit. Often these sums are so high that it is not realistically possible that a person could ever work them off. Traffickers may also exploit a victim’s fear to keep him or her from leaving or going to the police. Fear of deportation, fear of further sexual or physical exploitation at the hands of officials, or fear of persecution for his or her engagement in illegal activities such as sex work and/or illegal entry may keep a trafficking victim from coming forward and asking for help" (AIFirefly.org).