PENNSYLVANIA, USA — While human trafficking remains prevalent in Pennsylvania, there’s a lesser-known issue happening in plain sight across the state.
“Labor trafficking is often misunderstood and misidentified,” said Rhonda Hendrickson, Chief Operating Officer at YWCA Greater Harrisburg.
According to Hendrickson, labor trafficking is increasingly on the organization's radar.
“We definitely have seen our services, taking an increase in identifying labor trafficking,” she said. “We have a fair mix of migrant workers, domestic servitude even families that bring another family member over from somewhere overseas to work in a business, we see this massage parlors, and they work off their debt.
Each situation is unique, but labor trafficking can begins with a migrant worker who is offered a job that includes housing, only to find out they are not being paid for their work
Labor trafficking can also take place within a marriage, where a spouse is not paid for their work in a family business. These situations can be hard to spot, because the work appears routine, but there can be clues something else is going on.
“You're getting your nails done weekly but you see the same people working maybe cleaning the sinks, cleaning the floors. Maybe there's some evidence that people are actually sleeping there,” Hendrickson said. “Are they being forced to do labor work? Are they being paid fair wages? Are they being given a break? Do they work seven days a week and they get little pay that then they owe somebody else who provided them an opportunity to get this job?”
Hendrickson said many labor trafficking victims may also be experiencing sex trafficking.
“If a victim has to work 15 or 20 hours a day, which is very common, seven days a week, and they're being mistreated and abused and exploited each and every day, the trauma becomes compounded on a daily basis,” she said.
YWCA Greater Harrisburg works alongside other agencies, training individuals to identify labor trafficking, while helping victims get out of and recover from this type of abuse.
“Raising awareness is vital, but what we want to do is prevent it from happening in the first place,” Hendrickson said.
Hendrickson does not want residents to put themselves in harm’s way, but encourages anyone with information about possible labor trafficking to report it through the National Human Trafficking hotline.