Debt Bondage

Debt bondage, as explained by the U.S. State Department of Health and Human Services, is the practice in which:

traffickers demand labor as a means repayment for a real or alleged debt, yet they do not reasonably apply a victim’s wages toward the payment of the debt, or limit or define the nature and length of the debtor’s services. Traffickers may charge victims fees for transportation, boarding, food, and other incidentals; interest, fines for missing daily work quotas, and charges for “bad behavior” may be added.  Debt bondage traps a victim in a cycle of debt that he or she can never pay down, and it can be part of a larger scheme of psychological cruelty.

A commonly cited scenario of traffickers using debt to enslave victims begins with unfair transportation fees. In order to transport victims, some traffickers will promise to provide sustainable employment if the victim agrees to travel to the destination state. However, once reaching the destination state traffickers will explain that the victim must work off the costs of transporting them to a new place. Then traffickers charge fees for room and board and pay the victim very little for their work. The debt continues to build and the victim has no hope of ever paying off the money they “owe” to the trafficker. The victim is then enslaved by debt in a country where they often don’t know the culture or language. This practice is used in labor and sex trafficking. In sex trafficking, women may agree to work as a maid or waitress, but then are forced to work in the sex industry to pay off their debt. Another common occurrence happens in sex trafficking where a trafficker pays for a victims clothes, food, or other expenses and then demands a return on the cost, but does not fairly apply any given money to the debt.

Exploitation

The United Nations defines sexual exploitation as: “”any actual or attempted abuse of a position of vulnerability, differential power, or trust, for sexual purposes, including, but not limited to, profiting monetarily, socially or politically from the sexual exploitation of another.” Exploitation in general can be defined similarly, but for other purposes such as labor. All victims of human trafficking have been exploited in some way because all victims have been abused in a position of vulnerability.  Common examples of exploitation found in human trafficking include coercing a young runaway woman into sex work, manipulating illegal immigrants to work for unfair wages while working in harsh conditions, and manipulating impoverished women into prostitution.

Force 

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services explains:

Force can involve the use of physical restraint or serious physical harm. Physical violence, including rape, beatings, and physical confinement, is often employed as a means to control victims, especially during the early stages of victimization, when the trafficker breaks down the victim’s resistance.

Traffickers use force as one way to control their victim. Victims become so afraid of their trafficker that they do not try to escape and become willing to submit to all the trafficker’s demands.  Some victims develop Stockholm Syndrome, in which the repeated abuse over time causes victims to have a strong attachment to their traffickers.