February 27, 2014
Following months of work to stop human trafficking at the recent Super Bowl in New Jersey, today we at the Community Foundation of New Jersey are “in it to end it.” We’re joining with partners like the Polaris Project to shine a light on modern day slavery such as human trafficking, bonded labor, and forced labor.
February 27, 2014 is the day to build awareness around modern slavery and you can help. Share this article with your friends, post on social media, and draw a red “X” on your hand today.
It may come as a shock that several forms of slavery are not in the dustbin of history. Unfortunately, they persist in dark corners all over the world. Slavery occurs, after all, when one person completely controls another person, using violence or the threat of violence to maintain that control, exploits them economically, pays them nothing and they cannot walk away.
But does trafficking exist in New Jersey?
In brief, yes. And not just around the Super Bowl. According to the National Human Trafficking Resource Center (NHTRC), the National Human Trafficking Hotline received nearly 1,500 calls from New Jersey from roughly 2008 through 2013. Of these calls, 282 involved trafficking situations, of which half were classified as “high risk” and the other half as “moderate risk.” The most common type of trafficking in New Jersey has been related to sex, accounting for 70 percent of the cases. Forced labor accounted for another 20 percent. Trafficking victims were disproportionately women (82 percent of cases) and although the number of incidents was greatest in the area between Middlesex and Bergen County (including Hudson and Essex), trafficking occurred in every corner of the state. For more data related to human trafficking in New Jersey, click here.
To learn more about the “End it Movement” of February 27th, click here or watch the below video.