In 2011, President Barack Obama declared January to be National Human Trafficking Month. Why is this necessary, you ask? There are more people today enslaved due to human trafficking than there were prior to the Civil War. Yet, less people are aware of it.
With the downfall of both the U.S. and world economy, all kinds of underground crime have risen. One example is human trafficking, which is second only to drug trafficking in scope. Fifty percent of trafficking victims are children. And Toledo, Ohio is one of the leading cities that brings both domestic and international children into the commercial sex trade.
Toledo is the third largest gateway city for child sex trafficking. “[B]ecause Toledo is so close to Detroit and large Ontario Province cities, heavy trafficking flows through Toledo to other places, including Las Vegas and overseas,” according to Hubpages.
Children as young as six months old are being trafficked into the sex trade. Children six months to twelve years old are sold at a rate of $1,000.00 for twenty minutes. At any given moment in Ohio, there are 1,800 individuals being held in trafficked bondage.
Trafficking children is becoming a generational trade. Grandmothers that are prostitutes allow their children into the trade, then groom their grandchildren for the sex trade, selling or offering them to sellers and/or pimps.
Toledo and Detroit, Michigan form a corridor for human trafficking, with its close proximity to Ontario, Canada. Vancouver, Canada is targeted by East Asian crime groups because of its close proximity to United States border, according to the US Department of State. Montreal, Canada is targeted because of its close proximity to the New York/Vermont border crossing.
Canada is a destination and transit country for human trafficking. “Some 800 people are trafficked into Canada each year, while an additional 1,500 to 2,200 are trafficked through Canada to the United States,” said the Parliament of Canada.
This January is the second annual National Human Trafficking Month. Hopefully, President Obama’s actions will push schools to focus on modern-day slavery in their classrooms, and any enslaved student will feel comfortable enough to step forward and ask for help to put an end to this. You can help too, by donating your time or money to Media 4 Humanity.
– Kate Eaves
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