red flags

How can I help identify a victim of human trafficking?   

IMPORTANT  

Trafficking victims, including undocumented individuals, are eligible for services and immigration assistance.  

TO GET HELP FROM THE NATIONAL HUMAN TRAFFICKING HOTLINE: 1-888-373-7888  

REPORT SUSPECTED HUMAN TRAFFICKING: 1-866-347-2423  

Text HELP or INFO to BeFree (233733)  

If you know anyone who is experiencing the following, call 1-866-347-2423 now:  

• Someone who works against their will, often for little or no pay (labor trafficking); or  
• Has sex for anything of value such as money, food, shelter, clothes, or drugs (sex trafficking).  
• Someone who is not free to leave or come and go as they wish.  

• Someone who is under 18 and provides commercial sex acts.  
• Someone who is in the commercial sex industry and has a pimp or manager.  
• Someone who is unpaid, paid extraordinarily little, or paid only through tips.  
• Someone works excessively long and/or unusual hours.  
• A person who is allowed breaks or suffers under unusual restrictions at work.  

• Owes a large debt and is unable to pay it off  
• Someone who was recruited through false promises concerning the nature and conditions of his/her work  
• Someone who is held under high security measures in the work and/or living locations (e.g. opaque windows, boarded up windows, bars on windows, barbed wire, security cameras, etc.)  

Are there any behaviors exhibited by victims?  

• They are fearful, anxious, depressed, submissive, tense, or nervous/paranoid  

• Exhibits unusually fearful or anxious behavior after bringing up law enforcement  
• They avoid eye contact.  
• Does not have access to adequate health care  
• Appears malnourished  
• They show signs of physical and/or sexual abuse, physical restraint, confinement, or torture  

• Has few or no personal possessions  
• They are not in control of their own money, no financial records, or bank account.  
• They do not in control of their own identification documents (ID or passport)  
• They are not allowed or able to speak for themselves without a third party who insists on being present and/or translating.  
• Does not know or is unable to state where he/she is staying (e.g., does not provide an address)  

• Lacks knowledge of whereabouts and/or does not know what city he/she is in  
• Has loss of a sense of time  
• Has numerous inconsistencies in their story