Human Trafficking: Can You Spot the Indicators?

Vance is a youth counselor at a local community center where he runs the after-school program. He is familiar with most of the kids in his community because so many of them come by the center to get help with schoolwork or play pickup sports games. Lately he has noticed a group of kids of various ages that he has never seen before. They hang out outside the corner store across the street selling candy bars and sometimes he sees them going door-to-door in the neighborhood trying to make sales. He is used to seeing some of the local kids selling candy for school fundraisers but there is something different about this group. They are very quiet and submissive, and they do not appear to go to school because he sees them out selling at all hours of the day. When one of the kids approaches him to sell candy one day, Vance asks him what neighborhood he lives in, but the child does not seem to know the answer. He notices that the kid is probably not getting enough to eat, and his clothes are in poor condition.

One day, Vance sees two men in a van drive up to the kids at the corner store. They get out to talk to the kids, and Vance overhears the men asking them how much money they have made so far. When the two men do not seem to be happy with the answer, they demand all the kids get in the van and they drive off to another location. Vance decides to write down the make, model, and license plate of the van and submit it to the local authorities with details about what he saw.

Go to the end of this newsletter to see if you caught the indicators present in this scenario.  

The scenario above is fictional but informed by subject matter experts and survivor consultants.