Forced labor 

In 1930 the ILO established an international definition of forced labor in the Forced Labor Convention stating:

Forced or compulsory labour shall mean all work or service which is exacted from any person under the menace of any penalty and for which the said person has not offered himself voluntarily.

In 2012 the ILO published the ILO Global Estimate of Forced Labour that further explains the issue and its estimated scope. The ILO explains that forced labor is not defined by the nature of the work but the exploitive relationship between the laborer and the trafficker. Victims are coerced and manipulated into labor situations in which they are unable to escape. Forced Labour can be understood as human trafficking. The ILO conservatively estimates that there are currently 21 million victims of forced labor in the world today. They break forced labor into three classifications: state imposed labor, privately imposed labor, and privately imposed labor specifically for sexual exploitation. Privately imposed labor exploitation is estimated to be the most prevalent form of forced labor, accounting for 68% of cases. The least estimated category is state-imposed labor at 10%.

Fraud

Fraud is one of the three main indicators of human trafficking as stated by the UN definition of human trafficking. The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services explains fraud in human trafficking as the following:

Fraud involves false promises regarding employment, wages, working conditions, or other matters. For example, individuals might travel to another country under the promise of well-paying work at a farm or factory only to find themselves manipulated into forced labor. Others might reply to advertisements promising modeling, nanny, or service industry jobs overseas, but be forced into prostitution once they arrive at their destination.

Fraud allows traffickers to seem like they are assisting or helping a victim out of a bad situation such as poverty, family abuse, or some other hardship when in reality they are taking advantage of a victim’s vulnerable state.

Hotels 

Hotels are a common place for prostitution to take place. A typical scenario for hotel prostitution is for a man to answer an Internet ad, purchase a woman or child online, and arrange a hotel room in which the sexual services can take place. Women and children are also bought on the street and then taken to hotels to provide services as well. Sometimes, hotels are part of the human trafficking ring, granting rooms to pimps and johns for the purpose of prostitution. However, because of hotel’s key role in sex trafficking they have been labeled as potentially great prevention tools as well. Hotels have begun working with law enforcement to train employees how to detect and report human trafficking within hotels. The travel and tourism industry has created a “formal code” in hopes of creating protection for victims versus assisting in their exploitation. One CNN Report explains how one man’s call for greater accountability for the hotel industry has lead to greater action from hotels to prevent human trafficking. This report highlights the role of consumers in keeping the hotel industry accountable.