On April 24, 2010 Illinois Rescue and Restore will hold its 5th annual Outreach Day, volunteers across Illinois will hang up posters and distribute brochures advertising the National Human Trafficking Resource Center Hotline and other information on how to help victims of trafficking.
Rescue and Restore is a coalition between the Illinois Department of Human Services (DHS) and the federal government to combat labor and sex trafficking in Illinois. In partnership with law enforcement, social service organizations, healthcare, and advocacy groups across the state, DHS seeks to fight what has been dubbed a modern day form of slavery.
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), answers the question "Trafficking vs. Smuggling: What’s the Difference?"
“Human trafficking” are distinct criminal activities, and the terms are not interchangeable. Human trafficking centers on exploitation and is generally defined as:
* Sex trafficking in which a commercial sex act is induced by force, fraud or coercion, or in which the person induced to perform such act has not attained 18 years of age; or
* Recruitment, harboring, transportation, provision or obtaining of a person for labor or services, through the use of force, fraud or coercion for the purpose of subjection to involuntary servitude, peonage, debt bondage or slavery.
Human smuggling centers on transportation and is generally defined as:
* Importation of people into the United States involving deliberate evasion of immigration laws. This offense includes bringing illegal aliens into the country, as well as the unlawful transportation and harboring of aliens already in the United States.
Illinois Rescue and Restore goals are to reach out to potential victims, collect data, educate first-responders, prosecute offenders and provide help to the victims of human trafficking. According to the U.S. Department of State, the number of annual victims of human trafficking across international borders worldwide is approximately 800,000 and between 14,500 and 17,500 of those victims are trafficked into the U.S., other sources estimate that up to 27 million people are in some form of slavery around the world. In Illinois, it is estimated that around 16,000 to 25,000 women and girls are victims of commercial sexual exploitation in Chicago every year.
Traffickers often take away the victims’ travel and identity documents, telling them that if they attempt to escape, the victims or their families back home will be harmed. Many men, women and children that are encountered in brothels, sweat shops, massage parlors, agricultural fields and other labor markets may have been forced or coerced into those situations and are potentially trafficking victims. Fraud plays a big part to lure people into trafficking situations, offering false jobs, money, fame or even love.
For more information or to voIunteer to help Illinois Rescue and Restore on April 24th contact Rachael Burke at dhs.ilrescueandrestore@illinois.gov.
24 Hour Hotline Numbers
* National Human Trafficking Resource Center Hotline
1-888-3737-888
* STOP-IT: Chicago Salvation Army Trafficking Outreach Program and Intervention Techniques Hotline
1-877-606-3158
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