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Human trafficking: a criminal activity in which people are kidnapped, harbored, transported, or sold and purchased to serve an exploitative purpose, such as sexual slavery, forced labor, or child soldiery.
Human trafficking is widespread and is prevalent in many nations throughout the world, including the United States of America.

According to U.S. government, there are about 300,000 American children at-risk every year to human trafficking. Currently, 200,000-300,000 Americans, including children and teens, are sold into the sex trade. These numbers do not include the thousands of foreigners who are trafficked into the U.S. boarders every year.

Trafficking is conducted in the U.S. at numerous locations in all 50 states including restaurants, strip clubs, hotels, and truck stops. According to the FBI, traffickers have targeted truck stops as a paradise for solicitation because of the transient lifestyle. The victims of trafficking, those being sold, are not able to make the necessary connections to get help from the drivers around them because those truck drivers will usually be gone the very next day.

So what can you do? As a truck driver, you are the eyes and ears of the nation’s highways; you see things no one else is even aware of. It’s time for you to step up. It is time for you, as a truck driver, to start a change that will affect the lives of hundreds if not thousands. If you think this sounds difficult, it’s not. All it takes is one simple phone call.

In March of 2009, an organization was started to rescue those individuals who find themselves trapped in the dark world of human trafficking. This organization realized the importance of working with truck drivers in an effort to stop trafficking. The organization, called Truckers Against Trafficking (TAT), implemented a system where truck drivers can call a hotline and report instances of human trafficking. That call will then trigger an investigation where lives can be saved and evil can be removed from the streets.

TAT has successfully assisted in the rescue of over 1,500 children including a young woman named Shari. When Shari was 15 she and her cousin were abducted on their way to a Wendy’s near their home in Toledo, OH. They were taken to a home where they were informed they would be forced to repeatedly sell their bodies in prostitution. When the two teens rebelled, they were punished.

“When one of us would do something wrong, the other one would pay for it,” Shari said. “They played us off each other and it worked.”

She recalled one instance in particular where she had tried to escape and was caught. She was thrown into a glass table where she was severely cut by the glass and then forced to watch as the pimp of the house repeatedly dragged her cousin up the stairs by her hair then threw her back down.
“It was really horrible to hear her screaming and screaming for me,” Shari said of the experience. “They were holding me back and telling me I had to watch. They said this is what happens when I do stuff like that; it was my fault.”

Shari and her cousin experienced many horrible ordeals at the hands of their captors and those who purchased their services. It is important to realize that even if you unwittingly purchase services from a victim of trafficking, you are committing a criminal act. Not only that, but you are wrecking the life of a human being.

The human trafficking industry is a billion dollar industry, second only to the drug trafficking industry. The lasting impact of the human trafficking industry is spurred to rival that of the drug industry for many reasons, one reason being the re-usability of the victims. “Where you can only sell a drug once, you can sell a human being over, and over, and over again.” Kirsta Melton, Assistant Criminal District Attorney in Bexar County, TX, stated.

Life in the trafficking industry is almost impossible to escape. Victims are watched closely and threatened on a daily basis. “They are placed in a situation they literally cannot get out of,” Melton said. Victims of human trafficking are forced into a nightmare from which there is no waking. They can’t save themselves, but you can.

After what seemed like a lifetime of being trapped in the web of trafficking, Shari was eventually rescued. She was rescued because a truck driver made a call. This call resulted in not only Shari being saved, but her cousin and 7 other children as well. This call also triggered a case that convicted 31 offenders and shut down a prostitution ring in 13 states.

All the truck driver did was call the authorities and tell them there were some young girls at a truck stop. His name was never disclosed, not even Shari knows who to thank for her rescue. Because of this truck driver these children were saved and the lives of unnumbered potential victims were also saved.

It can work. It will work if you only pick up the phone. Call the Truckers Against Trafficking hotline at 1-888-373-7888 to report trafficking in your area. You can also go to truckersagainsttrafficking.com to learn how to identify possible trafficking victims and how you can help in the efforts to stop human trafficking.