“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 or services, slavery or practices similar to slavery, servitude or the removal of organs”

-Trafficking of persons defined by the United Nations in Article 3, paragraph (a) Article 3, paragraph (a) of the Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punish Trafficking in Persons .

Human Trafficking is a broad term used to describe many forms of exploitation. While trafficking can look different in different contexts, most trafficking falls within three main categories:

• Labor Trafficking

• Sex Trafficking

• Organ Trafficking

Sex trafficking is the buying, selling or exploitation of an individual for the purpose of commercial sex acts.

Or, any form of engagement, facilitation, or enticing of minors in a commercial sex act is sex trafficking.

**“Buying or selling” is not always a monetary exchange, but the exchange of something of value or benefit (i.e. rent, drugs, survival,)

A trafficker’s main goal is to gain and maintain control over their victims (survivors). They use a series of psychological and/or physical means to coerce “compliance”.

Traffickers/abusers intentionally exploit basic universal human desires and needs as well as existing vulnerabilities.