According to the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), human trafficking is becoming more violent, more profitable, and more global. According to the UNODC, more than 200,000 individuals were identified in trafficking situations from 2020 to 2023 alone. This figure is widely understood to be a minimum estimate, as trafficking is a chronically underreported crime and many individuals in trafficking situations remain unidentified. Organized criminal networks and other bad actors exploit migration flows, global supply chains, legal and economic loopholes, and digital platforms to commodify people for labor, sex, and criminal enterprise.
This year’s theme, “Human trafficking is Organized Crime—End the Exploitation,” underscores the need for a robust criminal justice response that includes proactive investigations, strengthened cross-border cooperation, and the strategic targeting of traffickers’ finances and networks. Dismantling trafficking networks, however, requires more than just enforcement; it requires centering survivors in how we prevent trafficking and pursue justice.
During Human Trafficking Prevention Month earlier this year, USCRI highlighted the importance of enhanced data collection and cross-sector collaboration to improve identification and response. Today, we build on that conversation by focusing on how comprehensive services and legal protections for survivors are not just acts of goodwill but are essential tools to both prevention and prosecution.
Organized Crime Preys on Vulnerability. Services Disrupt Exploitation Pathways
Human trafficking does not happen in isolation. It thrives in vulnerable and underserved communities, on the margins of society, and in the gaps between systems. Organized criminal groups, whether loosely affiliated or tightly structured, use poverty, displacement, legal precarity, and lack of support to recruit and control their victims. That means preventing trafficking requires investing in supportive services and reducing the conditions that make people vulnerable in the first place.
As Jean Bruggeman, Executive Director of Freedom Network USA, emphasized during USCRI’s Human Trafficking Prevention Month roundtable:
“What is missing from our response is a focus on primary prevention. And I think that’s been missing from the start. We cannot prosecute our way out of this crime.
We’ve talked about the vulnerabilities that make people easy to exploit. Those vulnerabilities are created by our legal system. It is our immigration system that puts immigrants in harm’s way and invites traffickers to take advantage. It is our refusal to provide affordable housing to people across this country that puts people, children, and parents in positions of vulnerability where they are so desperate to do anything they can in order to pay rent.
…It is our refusal to change these systemic barriers, forms of discrimination, and exploitation that allow trafficking to continue to thrive. And as technology advances and changes, it’s going to just keep changing to keep up with it until we start really, truly investing in prevention, in primary prevention.”
Access to trauma-informed care, legal representation, stable housing, and economic opportunity makes communities safer and reduces exploitation, victimization, and revictimization. These services also help disrupt the pathways traffickers use to exploit vulnerable individuals, undermining a key strategy used by traffickers. Despite this, funding for long-term services remains static, and protections are inconsistently applied, allowing many survivors to fall through the cracks.
Survivor-Centered Approaches Make Prosecution Possible
Without protections, many survivors are understandably hesitant to engage with law enforcement. Fear of retaliation, deportation, or even prosecution keeps survivors from testifying, reporting, or cooperating in investigations. In turn, traffickers evade justice and continue to operate with impunity.
Tools like Continued Presence, T and U visas, state-level vacatur laws, and case management services were designed to enable survivors to safely participate in investigations and rebuild their lives. Yet they are often underutilized or delayed. As protections for immigrants weaken, survivors may wait years for immigration relief, be deported, or face arrest for offenses they were coerced into committing. These failures weaken cases and undermine trust in the justice system.
A truly victim-centered approach not only ensures survivors’ safety, but it also improves outcomes in the courtroom. Survivors who feel secure, supported, and respected are more likely to engage with law enforcement. Prosecutors and investigators must be trained in trauma-informed practices and equipped to work in collaboration with service providers, rather than treating survivors as evidence.
Survivor Leadership Makes Justice Smarter
Survivors are not just recipients of services or witnesses to crimes; they are experts. Their insights help law enforcement understand recruitment tactics, identify trafficking routes, and recognize warning signs across labor sectors and industries. Survivor-led organizations and task forces have long advocated for smarter laws, better data, and more equitable systems. Integrating their perspectives improves both prevention strategies and legal outcomes.
As traffickers adapt with technology, encrypted communications, and transnational tactics, our responses must also evolve. That evolution, however, cannot be led by law enforcement alone. The criminal justice system must be paired with survivor-informed solutions and community-based programs that address the root causes that traffickers exploit.
Disrupting Organized Crime Starts with Dignity and Justice
To truly end human trafficking and the organized exploitation it fuels, we must address every link in the chain, not only the traffickers but also the systems that allow them to operate unchecked. Survivors themselves have consistently called for these changes, emphasizing that protection and prevention require systemic reform. That means:
- Funding long-term, survivor-centered services including housing, legal aid, case management services, and mental health support.
- Prioritizing immigration protections like Continued Presence, T and U visas, and vacatur laws to enable survivor participation in legal processes.
- Training law enforcement and prosecutors in trauma-informed, culturally competent approaches.
- Strengthening cross-border and interagency cooperation, with survivors’ safety and autonomy at the center.
- Combating criminal impunity by focusing on financial investigations and network-level prosecutions, and not just individual actors.
This World Day Against Trafficking in Persons is a call to action. Organized crime relies on silence, fear, and neglect. Survivors break that silence. A justice system that supports and listens to them can break the cycle of exploitation.
To end human trafficking, we must protect survivors, prosecute traffickers, and build systems rooted in justice and dignity, not just enforcement. Because when we center survivors, we not only hold perpetrators accountable, but we also prevent exploitation from ever taking root.
USCRI, founded in 1911, is a non-governmental, not-for-profit international organization committed to working on behalf of refugees and immigrants and their transition to a dignified life.
