

HUMAN TRAFFICKING
A Resource Document
(Approved by the General Presbytery in session July 30, 2011)
As Assemblies of God ministers and missionaries evangelize and disciple believers around the world, they increasingly encounter, from the teeming slums and brothels of Asia to the commercial districts of the United States, desperate and broken people who have been enslaved against their will and impressed into a life of cruel labor or sexual degradation. Called to demonstrate God’s love and compassion in both word and deed, we are not insensitive to their suffering or silent in the face of the evil inflicted upon them.
As followers of Christ we are deeply aware that our Lord came to break such bondage. This resource document is a preliminary step in humbly and prayerfully facilitating this ministry as He has committed it to us.
Biblical Foundations
As a Fellowship, our abhorrence of and response to human trafficking grows out of our understanding that God is the giver of life, that every human life is thereby precious, and that spiritual transformation is always available to all persons, including the forcibly degraded, through the love and power of Jesus Christ.
It is the very nature of Spirit-filled ministry to bring freedom and healing for the enslaved and broken. Our Lord described His own ministry in these terms when, at the beginning of His Galilean ministry, He quoted from the prophet Isaiah,
“The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because he has anointed me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to set the oppressed free, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor” (Luke 4:18,19, from Isaiah 61:1,2).
This understanding also lay at the core of the apostolic preaching, “God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and power, and . . . he went around doing good and healing all who were under the power of the devil, because God was with him” (Acts 10:38). In the ministries of Jesus and the early church, Spirit-filled preaching and teaching were also accompanied by Spirit-empowered deeds of healing and deliverance.
Such ministry grows out of God’s revelation of himself and His will as reiterated in the Bible. Again and again, the following basic themes challenge people of faith to respond to trafficking and slavery with justice and healing:
- God is a God of justice and blesses those who maintain justice (Deuteronomy 32:4; 2 Chronicles 19:7; Psalm 11:7; 106:3; Proverbs 28:5; Isaiah 56:1; 61:8; Zechariah 7:9; as well as Luke 11:42).
- Every person is unique in God’s creation and is equally deserving of love, respect, and dignity (Genesis 1:27; 2 Corinthians 5:17; Galatians 3:26,28,29).
- Every person regardless of station in life or depth of victimization is to be evangelized with the offer of forgiveness of sins and new life through the redeeming death of Jesus Christ (John 3:7,16,17; 2 Corinthians 5:17).
- The redemptive power of Jesus Christ brings transformation for the whole person. Our Lord is concerned for the physical, emotional, mental, and relational well-being of His creation in this life (John 6:48–51).
- Concern and care for the poor and marginalized is commanded by Jesus, modeled throughout His earthly ministry, and perpetuated in the Early Church (Acts 2:45; 4:34; Romans 15:26; Galatians 2:10; James 2:15,16). Jesus personally ministered regularly to the poor, the sick, and the downtrodden (Luke 4:18,19).
- The heart of Christ’s message on earth was one of hope for a new life. “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here! (2 Corinthians 5:17).1
Because of these truths that are indeed foundational to Christ’s mission as revealed in Scripture, the Church corporately and believers individually have the opportunity to play a critical role in providing life-changing care for trafficking survivors.2
• The men and women of the Church can provide faith-based holistic care as they utilize their spiritual, professional, and financial resources to minister to trafficking victims.
• Only the Church can provide guidance and nurture for true and lasting spiritual transformation that is rooted in dynamic Christian conversion and Spirit-filled discipleship.
• Transformational care is most effective in the context of a loving supportive community. The Church is such a community, a family where survivors can find faith, support, and a new life.
Statement of Problem
As startling as it may be in our supposedly enlightened age, commerce in human beings is thriving each day throughout the world. People are bought, sold, traded, transported, recruited, transferred, and enslaved within countries and across international borders. Traffickers recognize they can make more money through the trade of a person multiple times over as compared to the one-time sale of firearms or drugs. At the same time, impoverished individuals and family members are desperate to survive and may not recognize that they are being deceived or coerced, if not actually forced into being trafficked.
The U.S. Department of State Trafficking in Persons Report (TIP) 2010 cites estimates of 12.3 million adults and children in forced labor, bonded labor, and forced prostitution around the world. Even more people are trafficked for forced labor than for the commercial sex industry. These individuals are more likely to be coerced and exploited when they voluntarily enter a particular form of service, or migrate willingly, as opposed to being kidnapped.
Human trafficking also occurs in the United States. With regard to the trafficking of minors in the United States, to cite one of many possible examples of human trafficking, Shared Hope International has found:
- At least 100,000 children are used in prostitution every year in the United States.
- The average age of entry into prostitution is 13 years old.
- At least 75 percent of minors exploited through prostitution are controlled by a pimp.
- There are three primary manifestations of child sex trafficking in the US:
- pimp-controlled prostitution,
- familial prostitution (the selling of one’s family member for sex in exchange for drugs, shelter or money), and/or
- survival sex.3
Defining the Trafficking Problem
Faced with the growing international scandal of human trafficking, the United Nations, as well as many national governments, has begun to recognize and address the issue with appropriate studies and legal action.
The UN Convention against Transnational Organized Crime and its Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punish Trafficking in Persons, especially women and children (also known as the Palermo Protocol or Palermo Project) was adopted in 2000. It is the first legally binding instrument agreed upon globally in the definition of trafficking in persons. Its intent is to assist in the recognition of domestic criminal offenses and the international cooperation to investigate and prosecute trafficking in persons’ cases. It is also intended to fully protect and assist the victims of trafficking and support their human rights. Some of their findings include:
Article 3, paragraph (a) of the Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punish Trafficking in Persons defines trafficking as the recruitment, transportation, transfer, harbouring, or receipt of persons, by means of the threat or use of force or other forms of coercion, of abduction, of fraud, of deception, of the abuse of power or of a position of vulnerability or of the giving or receiving of payments or benefits to achieve the consent of a person having control over another person, for the purpose of exploitation. Exploitation shall include, at a minimum, the exploitation of the prostitution of others or other forms of sexual exploitation, forced labour (sic) or services, slavery or practices similar to slavery, servitude or the removal of organs.4
In addition, the United States adopted the Trafficking Victims Protection Act of 2000 to further the efforts of the elimination of human trafficking. The law emphasizes a “victim-centered approach” to human trafficking.
The Trafficking Victims Protection Act defines “severe forms of trafficking in persons” as (a) sex trafficking in which a commercial sex act is induced by force, fraud, or coercion, or in which the person induced to perform such an act has not attained 18 years of age; or (b) the recruitment, harboring, transportation, provision, or obtaining of a person for labor or services, through the use of force, fraud, or coercion for the purpose of subjection to involuntary servitude, peonage, debt bondage, or slavery.5
The terms “trafficking in persons” or “human trafficking” are often used interchangeably. The terms refer to one person’s obtaining or holding another person in compelled service. Human trafficking includes involuntary servitude, slavery, debt bondage, and forced labor.
- A “trafficker” is one who profits by receiving cash or other benefits in exchange for the trade of an individual.
- A “perpetrator” or “buyer” is usually male but can be anyone that is a buyer of commercial sex acts. These terms are preferred over “client” or “customer” which normalize or masks the nature of the male role in the purchase of the sex act.
- The terms “prostituted person” (or “prostituted woman” or “prostituted child”) are preferred terms over “commercial sex worker,” “adult sex provider,” or “prostitute.” These later terms normalize the activity as work instead of acknowledging the fact that a person is being exploited in the activity.
- In this paper the term “victim” is used to refer to an individual still trapped in the trafficking situation and “survivor” is one who has escaped, been released or rescued, and is on the restorative road to recovery.
What Human Trafficking Is
As previously noted, forced labor encompasses the majority of human trafficking. Workers are often exploited when there are high rates of unemployment, poverty, and crime, with immigrants being especially vulnerable. Domestic servitude most often affects women and girls that are forced into labor and often sexually exploited as well.
Involuntary domestic servitude is a form of forced labor. The workplace may be informal and connected to off-duty living arrangements. Illnesses and sexual abuse abound in this exploitation of labor.
Sex trafficking can occur within debt bondage as well as when an adult is coerced, forced, or deceived into, or maintained by coercion in, prostitution. Crucial to an understanding of the legal issues is that a person’s initial consent to participate in prostitution is not the final determining factor as to whether they have been trafficked. If they are held in service through psychological manipulation or through physical force, they are considered victims of trafficking.
There are three areas specifically related to children in the definition of human trafficking. Some forms of lawful child labor do exist within certain boundaries. However, if a child is trafficked, sold, entrapped in bonded or forced labor, then it is considered a form of human trafficking. When a child does not have the option to leave and/or their work financially benefits someone outside the child’s family and they appear to be in the custody of a nonfamily member, then these are strong indicators that there is possible forced labor of the child.
In some countries, children of both sexes are unlawfully recruited by fraud, coercion, or forcible abduction to serve as combatants, perform labor, or for sexual exploitation by armed forces. As a result, using a child as a soldier can be considered a form of human trafficking.
Children are subjected to prostitution in the global commercial sex trade through various means: kidnapping, parents selling their child, a parent being deceived to think their child will have a good job and be able to send money home, as well as other forms of fraud. Sexually transmitted infections, including HIV/AIDS, physical and psychological trauma, drug addiction, pregnancy, malnutrition, social ostracism, and, potentially, death are all devastating consequences for minors that are trafficked for sex worldwide. The Palermo Protocol recognizes that in the case of children “there is no need to prove the threat or use of force or other forms of coercion, of abduction, of fraud, of deception, of the abuse of power, or of a position of vulnerability” to establish the crime of trafficking.
What Human Trafficking Is Not
With the understanding that the definition of human trafficking involves the force, fraud, or coercion of an individual to compel their services, the following do not directly constitute human trafficking, though in and of themselves, they are potentially criminal.
- The illegal adoption of infants and children is not considered human trafficking unless it is to the extent of slavery.
- The trade of human organs is not considered human trafficking, unless the individual is forced or coerced to secure the removal of the victim’s organs.
- The distribution and possession of child pornography is not human trafficking. However, when a child is made to perform any commercial sex act, including for purposes of producing the pornography, than it is considered trafficking.
The TIP Report 2010 indicates that
Prostitution by willing adults is not human trafficking regardless of whether it is legalized, decriminalized, or criminalized. However, pursuant to the TVPRA of 2008, the definitions of human trafficking under U.S. law are not construed to treat prostitution as a valid form of employment.6
As a result, the United States acknowledges that it is necessary to reduce the demand for commercial sex acts in order to eliminate severe forms of trafficking in persons, among many other reasons to eliminate the demand for prostitution.
Identifying Indicators
Everyone should be aware that there may be trafficking victims in their job sites, shopping areas, restaurants, and other areas of daily activity. Those who work in law enforcement, the health care industry, government and non-government organizations involved in combating human trafficking need to be especially aware of the potential of encountering trafficking victims.
In the United States, the Department of Health and Human Services’ “Look Beneath the Surface” anti-trafficking public awareness campaign provides a list of key indicators that may flag potential victims:
- Evidence of being controlled, evidence of inability to move or leave their job
- Bruises or other signs of physical abuse
- Fear or depression
- Not speaking on one’s own behalf and/or not speaking the local language
- No passport or other forms of identification or documentation7Specifically, the International Labour Organization (ILO) provides a list of indicators for the various categories of human trafficking.
- In general for labor exploitation, indicators include being deceived about the nature of the job, the living and working conditions, violence on victims, confiscation of documents, illegal status, excessive working days or hours, low or no salary, debt bondage, isolation/confinement/surveillance, and dependency on exploiters.
- For sexual exploitation, indicators include being deceived through promises of marriage, abduction, forced marriage, forced adoption or selling of the victim, being forced into illicit/criminal activities, or threats to inform family, community or public. An extensive list of indicators can be accessed on the ILO Web site.8
Trafficking victims face psychological and physical violence or threats of violence against either themselves or family members. They have also been taught to be wary of law enforcement, churches, and non-government organizations. As a result, victims are often reluctant to identify themselves as victims. It is usually necessary to ensure their safety first in order to accurately identify a trafficking victim.
Considerations in Response to Issues
Responses to the various issues of human trafficking should not be taken lightly. They must be encompassed in prayer before embarking on any long-term response. Since both trafficking and the needs of its victims are very complex, informed responses integrated with prayer are required. Simplistic emotional responses to the tragedy of trafficking may be heartfelt and sincere. However, the powerful evil dynamics that are at the heart of this issue require a level of intense intercession and anointed spiritual authority in those working with victims if deliverance is to be achieved.
Law Enforcement and Local Agencies. All individuals, upon identifying a trafficking victim, should be prepared to respond through proper law enforcement efforts and by utilizing local helping agencies’ contact numbers.9
The following considerations are also very important:
Victim Readiness. Not all victims of trafficking are ready to get out of their bondage. This is difficult to understand. It would seem obvious that all victims want to escape immediately. But consider the child or teen who was trafficked at a young age. Now, five to ten years later, all they know is their current surroundings—perhaps a brothel or dependence on a pimp who controls them. They may not have learned how to read and write or how to communicate in a normal setting. They may feel that they will not be accepted or will be stigmatized or even ostracized in the outside world from which they’ve been held. They may have been threatened if they left. When relationships are established with victims of trafficking and they are given assurance that they will be protected and assisted in reestablishing their lives, they will be better prepared to leave the situation in which they are enslaved.
Networking. Prior to initiating a response, it is important for the church to research what is happening in the local area with regard to law enforcement, trafficked victims, and organizations and churches that are responding to trafficking. Through this research, a collaborative community network can be developed to identify which aspects of victims’ needs are already being addressed, which are not, and what community members and organizations, including the Church, can do to best meet the need. This process also serves to identify those who can assist in providing specific services including legal, medical, and emotional care.
Identify What Can Be Done. Determine what realistically can be done individually or through the local church or other organizations. For example, an emphasis on prevention that encompasses public awareness campaigns, teaching in schools, and addressing root causes may be needed. Restorative care for those that are being rescued is an urgent need, which would most likely include sheltering and providing comprehensive services. Helpers with a strong background in law and/or law enforcement are needed to assist the trafficked survivor in the prosecution of the perpetrators. It is imperative that only well-trained individuals take this responsibility, and with solid support.
Shelters and Services. Shelters are more than a place of safe refuge. They must offer a variety of services that address the whole spectrum of survivors’ needs. If care does not address the emotional, mental, and spiritual needs of survivors along with physical needs, victims tend to be back in bondage within months, if not weeks. Interventions for psychological, physical/medical, and spiritual care, legal assistance, vocational and life skills training will be needed. This is where a network of organizations and people can especially assist the shelter. The shelter may not directly offer all the services but they can be provided in partnership with other entities, with the shelter in turn offering certain services to their partner agencies.
The safety and well-being of the survivor should be at the core of the shelter program, providing a sense of empowerment, trust, and community. Being respected, having opportunities to make decisions, freedom to visit family and friends outside the shelter and to leave the shelter at will are important for individuals who have otherwise been enslaved, trapped, and denied freedom.
Global Issues
- It is extremely important that prior to initiating any type of intervention for trafficking that individuals, churches and organizations have a clear understanding of local laws.
- In providing a home/facility for trafficked individuals, local building codes and laws that govern such facilities must be researched and observed.
- A thorough understanding of custody issues including what type of “custody” privileges may apply for the trafficker, such as a so-called employer, brothel owner, pimp that has ‘custody’ of a child, or other perpetrator that has control over an individual.
- The repatriation of a trafficking survivor should be done voluntarily and safely as well as in accordance with local law and as the laws of the country of origin. Survivors must be provided with thorough information as to what their alternatives are with regard to returning to their home country. Many survivors may have left with the understanding they could earn an income, become more self-reliant and empowered by leaving their country. They may still have these aspirations and may consider staying in the country if provided opportunities.
- An understanding of the situation in their home country is also important—will they have opportunity to make a living, live outside a shelter, be accepted by society, and be safe from perpetrators that may desire or even threaten to retraffic them.
- Natural disasters (e.g., hurricanes, earthquakes, tornadoes) can further impact the vulnerability of the most impoverished populations. Though it may not happen in the days immediately following a disaster, situations may develop that make it easier for a trafficker to exploit adults and children in need.
- Separated and unaccompanied children are especially vulnerable and efforts should be made to ensure their registration and safety as well as identify appropriate living family members.
- Research the latest U.S. State Department Trafficking in Persons report rating for the particular country of origin and understand how it can impact local government action with regard to repatriated victims.
Missional Issues. Churches and individuals prayerfully considering engagement with the trafficking issue, ministry to survivors, and/or financial support of organizations doing so are advised to ask the following questions:
- Is an organization under consideration affiliated with a healthy local/national church?
- The local church should be the primary source of trained staff who can integrate faith with their anti-trafficking initiatives.
- The local church is the essential community in which survivors can find love, acceptance and family on the healing journey. Unfortunately, the “community of darkness” has too often become the victim’s sole remaining community. In order to leave it successfully, they must have a new community—a “community of light” to which they can come and be accepted to achieve their survival.
- Does the program include the opportunity to participate in a local church as a part of the healing process?
- Does the organization integrate faith and hope in Jesus Christ into its mission and values? Long-term life change and genuine opportunity for a new life for survivors is ultimately impossible without becoming a “new creation” in Christ Jesus.
- Is the organization ethical in terms of the percentage of funding going to address the trafficking issue and aid victims directly compared to the percentage of funding going to promotional strategies?
- What kind of reputation does the organization have in the faith community and in the local secular community?
- What happens to survivors who have been helped by the organization’s programs? What kind of follow-up is provided?
- Are promotions for the organization sensitive to protect survivors in the program or do they exploit them for the sake of fund-raising?
- Does the organization respect trafficking victims as individuals created by God in His image—however marred—and practice Christ’s love in relationship to them regardless of their religious worldview?
- Is the organization financially accountable beyond its leadership? To whom?
- If the organization is outside the U.S., does it depend on local national staff, leadership, and ministers or is it dependent on foreign workers? Local grassroots ownership of the work is critical for sustainable success.
With trafficking, especially sex trafficking, becoming increasingly the issue of the day, it is essential that people of faith become knowledgeable, not only about the issues, but also about what is required to genuinely bring life-change to victims. As they generously reflect Christ’s love in giving and engaging, good stewardship requires research and prayerful analysis before determining how and where to engage. The ultimate goal is to see trafficked individuals find new life in Christ Jesus and realize the purposes for which He gave them life.
Opportunities for Churches to Respond
Trafficking is not independent of other issues churches face on a regular basis. It may be that the domestic help of an acquaintance, or a staff person at a local restaurant, is actually a trafficked person enslaved by the “employer”. There is also the more serious scenario of demand by men in and outside the church for pornography or for prostituted children or women. Easy access to and use of the Internet has exponentially increased the demand for the commercial sex industry, and the church is not immune to its effects on congregants.
There is the need to raise awareness within the Church about trafficking. But the Church should also provide a biblical understanding of sexuality—recognizing the beauty of sex within the context of marriage and the boundaries that exist outside of marriage. A biblical basis is vital for transformational change and opportunities for healing, especially for men, as it relates to sexual sin.
The Church should also teach the value of children and women from a truly biblical perspective, as contrasted to a secular cultural perspective. Woman, too, is the creation of God, made in His own image, and God values her as good in His eyes. Throughout the Old and New Testament, God reveals the value of women by the roles He ordained for them. Miriam in Exodus, Deborah the prophet in Judges, Ruth the Moabitess, Mary the mother of Jesus, and Mary Magdalene are just a few examples of the way in which God values women and endows them with dignity and purpose. The New Testament often demonstrates the way in which Jesus valued women in a culture that often did not. It is important that boys and young men learn to respect and value women, and that none view girls and women as mere objects, sex symbols, or persons with no value. The Church must be a leader in teaching the value of women and children of both sexes.
Another important way a church can be involved is to focus on the area of prevention. Children, youth, and young adult ministries can raise awareness about trafficking risks locally and provide information on how it can be prevented. Children, youth, and their parents should be able to recognize the risks that are prevalent each day within their own communities. Girls especially need to understand that sex trafficking is real, it is local, and they can prevent becoming a victim.
Other opportunities or ways that the church can engage and minister in response to trafficking include:
- Research and identify what the trafficking issue is in the community
- Communicate with local law enforcement and identify what they indicate as the need
- Identify what other churches and organizations are doing in the community andcollaborate with them.
- Educate the congregation on the issue of trafficking both locally and globally
- Provide space in the church building for public awareness campaigns and educational seminars on the topic
- Speak out against the issue of trafficking and encourage individuals to be aware of what may be taking place within their community and beyond.
- Develop or become part of a local network of responders to trafficking.
- Offer services that not duplicated by others for survivors of trafficking
- Provide intercessory prayer and spiritual counseling
Legal Cautions
- Many trafficking victims have had their legal documents taken from them. They have no record of who they are, where they came from and as a result are stateless, perhaps in their own country or the country to which they were trafficked. Obtaining legal status will be a necessary and potentially difficult process in some countries.
- Nongovernmental organizations, churches, and individuals should not play a lead role in a raid or rescue as they lack the authority and government backing to carry out such efforts. Caregivers must not attempt to rescue a trafficked victim without the intervention and help of law enforcement officials.
- It is important that staff of any intervention program become familiar with local laws as policies are developed for the program.
- Consider conducting basic training for both staff and survivors of their legal and human rights.
- Develop relationships with trusted lawyers who understand the issue of trafficking and human rights. In addition to their expertise they may be able to provide services free or at a reducedfee.
- Insure that appropriate licenses and registrations are obtained prior to opening any kind offacility.
- Work to insure that the victim is not charged with a crime.
- Age verifications and possible medical exams may be needed at the time of rescue,especially for those who have been exploited in the commercial sex industry.
- If the survivor is being placed in an aftercare home by the court system, ensure that a court order or other legal document is in hand to show that the aftercare home has legal custody ofthe survivor.
- Find out the local religious restrictions for aftercare homes.
- Have visitors to a home provide appropriate identification and ensure they sign in and signout.
- Establish a confidentiality policy.
- Establish a policy that limits or even forbids communications with media personnel.
- It may be important or necessary for the caregiver(s) to assist the survivor in court proceedings for the prosecution of the perpetrator.
- It is helpful to assist the survivor in drafting a thorough, complete, and accurate statement.
- Stay informed if the perpetrator is released since the survivor or even caregivers could be in danger.
- Be sure to have quality translators to assist in the any court process.10
Practical Cautions
- Be wary of complicit or corrupt law enforcement officials who may abuse victims, and in some cases may even be part of the trafficking system.
- Rescuing an individual without providing them the opportunity to develop practical skills for working and living, as well as an opportunity to heal, will potentially make them vulnerable to be trafficked again, or to voluntarily return to the life in which they were trafficked.
- Be careful in the use of media as an awareness raising strategy, a public relations tool, or even an effort to hold individuals accountable. The safety and privacy of the survivors should be of utmost importance.
- Do not use photos of survivors with their faces showing on publications or Web sites. This is an invasion of privacy and also potentially places the survivor at risk.
1 Beth Grant and Cindy Lopez Hudin, eds., Hands That Heal: International Curriculum to Train Caregivers of Trafficking Survivors (Springfield, MO: Project Rescue International on behalf of Faith Alliance Against Slavery and Trafficking [FAAST], 2007), 92–94.
2 Ibid., 109, 110.
3 The National Report on Domestic Minor Trafficking: America’s Prostituted Children in May 2009 (http://www.sharedhope.org/Resources/TheNationalReport.aspx).
4 http://www.unodc.org/unodc/en/human-trafficking/what-is-human-trafficking.html
5 http://www.state.gov/g/tip/c16507.htm.
6Topics of Special Interest, http://www.acf.hhs.gov/trafficking/campaign_kits/tool_kit_health/identify_victims.html
7 www.acf.hhs.gov/trafficking/campaign_kits/tool_kit_health/identify_victims.html.
8 http://www.ilo.org/wcmsp5/groups/public/—ed_norm/—declaration/documents/publication/wcms_105884.pdf
9 To report a potential victim in the U.S., call 1-888-373-7888.
10 A good resource is Hands That Heal: International Curriculum to Train Caregivers of Trafficking Survivors, Resource CD: Post Rescue Care for Trafficked Victims: The Legal Aspects.
Key Ministries within the Assemblies of God Addressing Human Trafficking
Assemblies of God, United States
- North Central University, Center for Biblical Justice: www.northcentral.edu
- Vanguard University, Global Center for Women and Justice: www.gcwj.vanguard.edu
Assemblies of God World Missions
- Breaking Chains Network – Belgium: www.breakingchainsnetwork.com
- Global Network Against Human Trafficking—a network of AGWM ministries and missionaries addressing human trafficking
- Project Rescue: www.projectrescue.com
- Sparrows Nest, Cambodia: http://web.me.com/dobsondata/Sparrows_Nest_Cambodia/Welcome.html Global Teen Challenge: www.globaltc.com
- Nurture Hope Network: www.nurturehopenetwork.net
Assemblies of God U.S. Missions
- F.R.E.E.: www.free-international.org
- Teen Challenge International, U.S.A.: www.teenchallengeusa.com
Christian Organizations Addressing Human Trafficking
Faith Alliance Against Slavery and Trafficking (www.faastinternational.org)–includes:
- Live 2 Free: www.live2free.org
- Project Rescue/AGWM: www.projectrescue.com
- Salvation Army U.S.: www.salvationarmyusa.org/trafficking
- Salvation Army World Service Organization: www.sawso.org
- World Hope International: www.worldhope.org
- World Relief: www.wr.org
International Justice Mission: www.ijm.org
Love 146: www.love146.org
Resources
Coalition Against Trafficking in Women: http://www.catwinternational.org/
Derbyshire, M. & Derbyshire, L. (2000). Body, mind and soul: A handbook for Christian ministry to commercially sexually exploited children and young people. Oxford: Viva Network.
End Child Prostitution and Trafficking: http://www.ecpatusa.org/
Gender Violence and Health Centre produces numerous reports on issues relating to trafficking victims. http://genderviolence.lshtm.ac.uk/reports/
Grant, B., Lopez Hudlin, C. (eds.) (2007). Hands that Heal: International Curriculum to Train Caregivers of Trafficking Survivors. Available at www.faastinternational.org.
Haugen, G. (1999). Good news about injustice: A witness of courage in a hurting world. Downers Grove, IL: Intervarsity Press.
Human Trafficking Research: Informing Policies And Programs: http://www.state.gov/g/tip/rls/tiprpt/2010/142750.htm
Initiative Against Sexual Trafficking: http://www.iast.net/ International Labour Organization: www.ilo.org
Kilbourn, P. (Ed.) (2008). Shaping the future: Girls and our destiny. Pasadena, CA: William Carey Library.
Kilbourn, P., & McDermid, M. (Eds). (2001). Sexually exploited children: Working to protect and heal. Monrovia, CA: WEC International.
Miles, G. & Wright, J.J. (eds.). (2003). Celebrating children: Equipping people working with children and young people living in difficult circumstances around the world. Carlisle, UK: Paternoster Press.
Office to Monitor and Combat Trafficking in Persons, U.S. Department of State: http://www.state.gov/g/tip/
Salvation Army—Prayer and Fasting Resources on Trafficking: http://www.salvationarmyusa.org/usn/www_usn_2.nsf/vw-dynamic- index/2E617561A12EFFB6852574440043C4B5?Opendocument
The National Report on Domestic Minor Sex Trafficking: America’s Prostituted Children, May 2009. http://www.sharedhope.org/Resources/TheNationalReport.aspx
Trafficking in Persons: A Guide for Non Governmental Organizations (in the United States), Published by the Women’s Bureau of the U.S. Department of Labor in collaboration with U.S. Department of State, U.S. Department of Justice and U.S. Department of Health and Human Services: http://www.child-trafficking.info/upload/links/TRAFFICKING%20IN%20PERSONS– A%20GUIDE%20FOR%20NON-GOVERNMENTAL%20ORGANIZATIONS.htm
United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime—Variety of Publications. http://www.unodc.org/india/htvs_publication.html
United Nations Toolkit to Combat Trafficking in Persons: http://www.unodc.org/documents/human-trafficking/HT_Toolkit08_English.pdf
United States Trafficking Victims Protection Act: http://www.state.gov/documents/organization/10492.pdf