Human Trafficking

IJPC’s work on the issue of human trafficking is significantly shifting in 2023. After seven years, IJPC is stepping away from offering human trafficking-specific programming as we seek to address the deeper systems of injustice that allow trafficking to happen in the first place. 

As part of our strategic plan, we will focus on the issues of immigration justice and criminal justice with relevant campaigns under each issue.

We know that in order to address human trafficking, we need to address our immigration system. Traffickers manipulate unjust immigration laws and practices in order to take advantage of people looking to start a new life. 

We know that in order to address human trafficking, we need to address our criminal justice system. Criminalizing survivors and their experiences just increases recidivism and puts them back into the dangerous hands of traffickers and their exploitative systems.

Our approach to ending trafficking is shifting so that we can see and name the pieces of a bigger picture. We remain committed to the campaign to expand criminal record expungement for survivors of human trafficking in Ohio and will continue naming the ways larger systems perpetuate harm against the most vulnerable in our society. 

Take a moment to read this reflection by IJPC Program Manager Samantha Searls, which explains the shift and acknowledges the progress we’ve made.

Resources:

• If you or someone you know needs help, call the confidential National Human Trafficking Hotline 24 hours a day, 7 days a week at 1-888-3737-888, text BEFREE (233733), or chat with a professional advocate. Support is provided in more than 200 languages.
• If you are in the Greater Cincinnati area, you can call the Greater Cincinnati Human Trafficking Hotline at 513-800-1863 which is also 24 hours a day, confidential, and has options for tele-interpreters. 
• Get involved by joining your local anti-human trafficking coalition. Find yours on the Ohio Attorney General’s Human Trafficking Initiative website.
• Take Polaris’ Human Trafficking 101 training to learn more about the issue.
• Explore data and research from Polaris to understand more about what human trafficking really looks like in the United States.
• Get involved through IJPC’s Greater Cincinnati Anti-Human Trafficking Volunteer Guide.