27 Million

27 million is the number of slaves in the world today. Imagine if you can, EVERY man, woman & child in the states of Texas and Iowa combined being forced into a life they cannot control. Young girls and boys forced to prostitute their bodies, women forced to cook or clean tables in a restaurant or allow themselves to be ‘bought’ in brothels, men forced to work in fields and factories…

What is Human Trafficking?
The United Nations definition of human trafficking is “The recruitment, transportation, transfer, harboring or receipt of persons, by means of the threat or use of force or other forms of coercion, of abduction, of fraud, of deception, of the abuse of power or of a position of vulnerability or of the giving or receiving of payments or benefits to achieve the consent of a person having control over another person, for the purpose of exploitation". Trafficking is a violation of human rights. Victims of trafficking suffer from physical and mental abuse and social stigmatization. They become isolated, losing ties with their former lives and families.

A Few Statistics
• Today there are more people enslaved than at the height of the Trans-Atlantic slave trade.
• According to Not For Sale there are approximately 200,000 people trapped in human trafficking in the US.
• Trafficking in women is the second largest global organized crime today, generating approximately US$12 billion a year.
• People are bought and sold for an average of $91
• Every 30 seconds a victim is pulled into human trafficking
• 80% are women and children

Where can you go for more information?
• Stop the Traffick
• Free the Slaves
• Not For Sale
• www.humantrafficking.org


What can you do?
Pray: Trafficking Prayer Guide: Use this prayer diary over a period of three weeks to focus your prayers on the issue of trafficking, praying for the victims of trafficking and for change around the world.

Day Three from Prayer Guide
Thirteen men in Pennsylvania, USA have been accused of trafficking girls as young as 12 into forced prostitution. Judges and law enforcement officers noticed that they were arresting and charging the same young girls over and over again. Often they had the money already prepared to pay the fine. It became clear that they were being controlled by a child sex gang and forced to work truck stops in the Toledo area. Many of the girls were from north Ohio. One of the accused claimed that the young girls were working of their own accord. “She’s choosing the best investment for her money,” he said. “The prosecutors are trying to make it like a bunch of us running around with candy in our pocket, going to parks and picking up little kids. It wasn’t like that at all - period.” In fact, it is illegal to employ a 14-year-old as a prostitute and taking these girls across state lines could mean that the men are charged with human trafficking. “They just become accustomed to that lifestyle,” Chip Burrus, the FBI’s acting assistant director for criminal investigations said. “You can’t consent to be a prostitute at age 14.”

Please pray for children from abusive backgrounds that drift into child prostitution, not only in the US, but also across the world. Often these children are trafficked and controlled and once in a situation of prostitution they find it hard to break out.