Announcement
Despite almost every country having national human trafficking laws broadly in line with the UN Trafficking in Persons Protocol, globally, people continue to be trafficked. What is more, in many countries, victims may still be criminalized and the impunity of traffickers prevails.
In 2020, national responses are all the more important because, currently, most known trafficking victims are identified in their own countries, as highlighted by the 2018 UNODC Global Report on Trafficking in Persons. Trafficking happens all around us.
Special attention should be devoted to identifying victims and strengthening domestic frameworks for victim protection, objectives that can only be sustainably achieved through strengthened institutional efforts to respond to all aspects of human trafficking. Whether law or services, national or community-based, sustained or targeted, all responses should be human rights-based, age and gender--responsive, and victim-centered to assist those most vulnerable and in need of protection and support.
The IRC in Kansas works with both foreign-national and domestic labor and sex trafficking cases, involving men, women, non-binary or gender non-confirming adults and children. The Lighthouse Project will launch in January 2020 and will serve primarily adult victims and survivors of human trafficking in Kansas and throughout the country. The mission of the Lighthouse Project is to provide a safe environment in which victims and survivors of human trafficking are supported in finding their way forward and out of the darkness of their trafficking experiences. By working alongside victims and survivors with access to services in the Wichita area and beyond, the Lighthouse Project seeks to empower individuals to rediscover the light and life within themselves.
In addition, the IRC in Wichita leads and is an active partner in the Wichita Area Response Network on Human Trafficking (WARN-HT). WARN-HT is a community-wide collaboration of governmental and non-governmental agencies, service providers, advocates, indpenedent community members, survivors and non-profit organizations throughout the greater Wichita area and beyond. Together, WARN-HT had developed the approach to interacting and assisting survivors of human trafficking, acts as a resource for training needs and opportunities, and is provides individuals and agencies with appropriate referral networks for survivors.
"Human trafficking, also known as trafficking in persons or modern-day slavery, is a crime that involves compelling or coercing a person to provide labor or services, or to engage in commercial sex acts. The coercion can be subtle or overt, physical or psychological," according to the fedreal definition provided by the US Department of Justice. Although there is no defining characteristic that all human trafficking victims share, traffickers around the world frequently prey on individuals who are poor, vulnerable, living in an unsafe or unstable situation, or are in search of a better life. Trafficking victims are deceived by false promises of love, a good job, or a stable life and are lured or forced into situations where they are made to work under deplorable conditions with little or no pay. In the United States, trafficking victims can be American or foreign citizens. Some of the most vulnerable populations for trafficking in the United States include American Indian/Alaska Native communities, lesbian-gay-bisexual-transgender-questioning individuals, individuals with disabilities, undocumented migrants, runaway and homeless youth, temporary guest-workers and low-income individuals.
To support anti-trafficking work in Kansas, you can donate here: http://Rescue.org/GiveWichita
For additional questions, please email [email protected].