Diesel Stories

When we talk about the estimates of people that are victims of human trafficking and modern slavery, the 40 million number (actually 40.3 million) is an estimate that comes from the International Labor Organization (ILO). You can click that link to read more but to quickly breakdown the ILO's estimates:Of the 40.3 million, 15.4 million are victims of forced marriage and 24.9 are victims of forced labor (which here include both sex and labor trafficking victims).Of the 24.9 victims of forced labor, 16 million are in the private economy, 4.1 million are victims of forced labor imposed by a state authority, and 4.8 million are victims of forced sexual exploitation.Of the 4.8 million victims of forced sexual exploitation, 3.8 million victims are adults and 1 million victims are children; 99% of all victims of sexual exploitation are female.Regarding the discussion around legalization (aka full decriminalization) vs partial decriminalization of prostitution that I mentioned: TAT supports the principles of the Equality Model (aka the Nordic Model or partial decriminalization) in that it seeks to prioritize the rights of those that have been exploited and holds abusers (johns/buyers and pimps/traffickers) accountable; essentially decriminalizing the sale of sex (impacting prostituted people) but criminalizing the purchase of sex (impacting the abusers). You can learn more about the arguments here from an organization called Demand Abolition. In a nutshell: legalization has been shown to 1) increase demand for commercial sex, 2) not actually provide any safeguards, and 3) normalize the buying and selling of human beings. Because of the traumatic and abusive acts inherent in prostitution, there will never be enough willing supply of women (or people in general) to meet the demand for commercial sex. Thus, traffickers will always have a market to profit off of the sale of the people they prey upon and victimize. You can also check out our recommended reading list (attached) to learn more about the complex nature of human trafficking, the intersection with the demand for commercial sex, and gain a better understanding of the tremendous amount of trauma that survivors of human trafficking work to recover from.