Human trafficking refers to the “recruitment, transportation, transfer, harboring or receipt of people through force, fraud or deception, with the aim of exploiting them for profit,”
according to the United Nations. It thrives in places with rampant human rights violations, but the act of trafficking leads to even more violations—thus creating a sort of vicious cycle. Human traffickers target those who are in desperate search of a different life for a variety of reasons. Then, these traffickers move their victims from one place to a completely new, unfamiliar one where they are forced to become entirely dependent on their traffickers. The traffickers gain full power over their victims because they have control of some aspects of a victim’s hierarchy of
needs.