Human Trafficking Awareness
First Informers
§ Include contact information and definitions of terms in every story.
§ Support law enforcement: Emphasize the success stories; de-emphasize the infighting.
§ Honor the need for confidentiality:
§ Protect the victims.
§ Protect the case.
§ Use journalistic techniques that make the story personal without revealing too much.
The Role of the Media
§ Train reporters to understand the issue, know the background and laws.
§ Organize a multi-lingual human-trafficking team.
§ Publicize and cover Anti-Trafficking events.
§ Know when to blow on the flames and when to put out the sparks.
Some misunderstandings that need repeated clarification:
§ Trafficking and smuggling are not the same thing.
§ This is not an illegal immigration issue.
§ This crime is not the victim’s fault even if he/she may have initially entered the country illegally and voluntarily.
§ This crime does not affect only one kind of person – the uneducated, the undocumented, the Latino, etc. In reality, anyone can become a victim, even your daughter.
§ The crime occurs in all kinds of communities because it occurs as domestic servitude, in landscaping and construction, in restaurants, nail salons, as well as sexual exploitation.
§ The crime is now second only to drug trafficking.