Muslims Against Human Trafficking

An initiative of MY Project USA

Muslims Against Human Trafficking is a targeted MY Project USA initiative engaging Muslim communities in the prevention of human trafficking, exploitation and abuse.

The initiative helps community members recognize warning signs, understand how trafficking can affect people in different circumstances, respond safely to concerns and connect individuals with appropriate professional resources. It also encourages mosques, families, youth leaders and community organizations to make prevention, survivor dignity and youth protection shared community responsibilities.

Our Approach
• Prevention education for youth, parents and community leaders
• Training and awareness for faith and community institutions
• Survivor-centered information and resource connection
• Advocacy that challenges exploitation, abuse and victim-blaming
• Collaboration with broader anti-trafficking and victim-service efforts

Human trafficking can affect people of every race, religion, gender and background. This initiative focuses specifically on engaging Muslim communities while supporting the broader goal of protecting all people from trafficking and exploitation.

If someone is in immediate danger, call 911. For trafficking-related assistance in the United States, contact the National Human Trafficking Hotline at 1-888-373-7888 or text 233733.

Sex Trafficking:

Sex trafficking which occurs specifically within the sphere of commercial sex work, where traffickers use force, fraud, or coercion to force individuals to engage in commercial sex against their will. Under federal law, any minor under the age of 18 years induced into commercial sex is a victim of sex trafficking, whether or not force, fraud, or coercion is used.

Individuals trafficked in commercial sex do not keep the money they earn and are often subject to violence by both their traffickers and patrons. Sex trafficking occurs in street-level prostitution, brothels, escort services, and otherwise “legitimate” businesses such as massage parlors, spas, and strip clubs.

In January of 2015, 18 women were freed from forced sexual slavery in several “massage parlors” throughout Central Ohio. In 2012, verdicts were returned against several Somali American defendants who had forced minor girls into prostitution in several states, including Ohio.

Labor Trafficking:

The majority of human trafficking is labor trafficking, where individuals are compelled to work by force, fraud, or coercion. Labor trafficking exists domestically and internationally, in virtually every industry, and can include child labor. Labor trafficking includes debt bondage, where a worker is forced to work to “pay off” a debt to their employer while racking up more “debt” to their employer for room and board. Individuals who are trafficked are often forced to work grueling hours under dangerous conditions for little to no pay.

Common types of labor trafficking include domestic work, construction, agriculture, traveling jobs such as carnivals and magazine sales, and manufacturing.

In February of 2015, Signal International was forced to pay $14 million dollars to several of over 500 Indian citizens whom they had lured to the United States on false promises of US Permanent Residents and subsequently enslaved.

Columbus, Ohio, has had several high-profile labor trafficking cases in recent years. In 2015, four were charged with forcing Guatemalan children to work and live in dangerous conditions in a Marion egg arm. In 2013, three people from Ashland, Ohio, were charged with forcing a mentally disabled woman and her child to perform domestic labor.

They maintained control over the pair with physical threats, with beatings, “taunting and threatening the victims with pit bulls and snakes, causing the victims to sleep in unsafe and unsanitary conditions, restricting their access to the bathroom, preventing them from eating regular and suitable meals and forcing the mother to eat dog food and crawl on the floor while wearing a dog collar.”

What Trafficking Isn’t:

It is critical that in working to combat slavery, we do not conflate voluntary migration or sex work performed by adults with trafficking. The hallmark of trafficking is force, fraud, or coercion.

Some Risk Factors That Can Be Controlled:

Abusive or Dysfunctional Families
Lack of Awareness about Drugs
Lack of Sexual Education
Abusive Foster Parent
Ignorance about the Issue within the Community.
Silence and Stigma regarding Childhood Sexual Abuse

What We Do To Protect Our Children:

Educate & Help Parents to Grow Strong Families
Create Safe & Productive Social Circles for Girls
Mentor, Counsel & Shelter Abuse & At-Risk Youth
Raise Awareness within the Community.

What You Can Do To Protect Them:

“And what can make you know what is [breaking through] the difficult pass? It is the freeing of a slave.” (Holy Quran - 90:12-13)

Join Muslims Against Human Trafficking on Facebook.
Donate to support our work.
Volunteer Your Time to Support the Cause
Help Us Start More Programs in Our Community.
Register to Become a Foster Parent, If You Can.
Contact MY Project USA to find nonprofits in your area who are working to combat human trafficking in your community.
Volunteer with organizations that provide access to safe shelters, medical care, and legal aid. Access to these basic necessities leaves people in your community vulnerable and prevents trafficking victims from seeking justice.
Raise awareness by speaking with classmates, colleagues, and faith leaders about human trafficking.
Mentor at-risk youth.
Be a conscientious consumer: support brands that work to eliminate slavery in their supply chains with resources such as www.free2work.org

Resources:

HEART Women and Girls has comprehensive resources on Sexual Violence including fact sheets and parenting toolkits.

Big Brothers Big Sisters pairs mentors with youth in need of mentoring.

Polaris Project provides national and state-based information on Human Trafficking and a hotline for reporting human trafficking, and advocates for strong anti-trafficking laws in all fifty states and at the federal level.

The Salvation Army shelters and provides resources for trafficking survivors throughout the country and internationally. The ACLU is at the forefront of combating trafficking by supporting survivors seeking justice against their traffickers.