Signs to Watch For

SIGNS OF HUMAN TRAFFICKING 

Human trafficking involves recruiting, transporting, or holding people to exploit them or to help others exploit them. A person experiencing human trafficking may exhibit the following signs:

• Appearing malnourished
• Showing signs of physical injuries and abuse
• Avoiding eye contact during social interactions and with authority figures like law enforcement
• Seeming to adhere to scripted or rehearsed responses in social interactions
• Lacking official identification documents
• Appearing destitute/lacking personal possessions
• Working excessively long hours
• Checking into hotels/motels with older males, and referring to those males as boyfriend or “daddy,” which is often street slang for pimp
• Having poor physical or dental health
• Having tattoos that appear like branding on the neck and/or lower back and wrists
• Untreated sexually transmitted diseases
• Not being allowed to go into public alone or speak for themselves
• Not dressing age appropriately or weather appropriately
• Disappearing for extended periods of time
• Not having any contact with family or friends
• Substance abuse issues
• Having an unstable living situation
• Living at their place of employment
• Living and/or working in a location with security measures that appear to keep people inside (i.e. barbed wire inside a fence or bars covering the insides of windows)

Know a youth, aged 12-24, who exhibits some of these signs? Let them know that CORATH is here help.