Human trafficking is a global pandemic affecting people of all ages. Every year, millions of people are being trafficked in different countries worldwide, the United States being one. It is a lucrative crime whose profit generation is estimated to be billions of dollars per year. Human trafficking is a type of modern-day slavery where the victim is illegally transported by violence, fake promises of a better job in the developed countries, psychological manipulation, or romantic relationships to entice them into the trafficking scenarios whereby the traffickers exploit them for financial or personal gain. The blue heart campaign is an organization that the homeland security department developed to create more awareness on human trafficking by helping the audiences be in a position to identify victims and culprits and how to handle such cases (Griffin, 2017) appropriately. These audiences are the public, law enforcement organizations, and other partners to help combat trafficking.
Health Risks and Heath Care Needs among Human Trafficking Victims
Victims of human trafficking are exposed to several health risks that include sexually transmitted infections since some of them are trafficked to work in the commercial sex work industry. Other hazards include post-traumatic stress disorder, anxiety, and depression from the trauma or torture. These challenges happen during forced trafficking. In this regard, most victims use drugs for comfort, triggering substance abuse. The perpetrators are not concerned about their nutrition and access to a balanced diet becomes a nightmare. Therefore, trafficked individuals become malnourished and some contract HIV/AIDS, physical injuries from beatings and physical abuse, skin conditions and tuberculosis due to the living conditions (Zimmerman & Kiss, 2017). The survivors often require a lot of health care attention, mental health services being vital since all the victims have had traumatic experiences and physical care. The health system plays an essential part in ensuring identification and treatment of human trafficking survivors as stated by the American Public Health Association. About 80 percent of the victims are women, and the first contact with these girls and women is with professional health care providers. According to a study conducted, approximately 50 percent of the trafficking survivors had access to health care personnel while being abused (Hemmings et al., 2016). The health care services available include dental, medical, reproductive, and mental health services. Additionally, the victims have access to short-term services, which provide necessities such as emergency health services, clothes and foods, and health care and long-term housing needs.
How Blue Campaign Contributes to Public Health and Safety Improvements through Its Mission and Vision
The blue campaign is on a mission to prevent the trafficking of innocent victims and protect the survivors. This mission has helped it to contribute to public health and safety improvements by providing human trafficking awareness training, for instance, the law enforcement officials are usually trained via the web on how to recognize human trafficking cases and how to offer the appropriate response, which the department of homeland security provides. The officials are also trained on the techniques to use while interviewing the survivors effectively without re-traumatizing them again and fully understand the extent of the trauma on the victim psychologically. Additionally, the organization hosts webinars on how human trafficking hurts Native Americans. It provides more insight into identifying and handling survivors of human trafficking from the Native American community (Griffin, 2017). The organization also has information cards and posters that help target potential victims and help connect them to reliable support.
The Impact of Funding Sources and Legislations to Blue Campaign Services
The blue campaign receives donations from the department of homeland security annually to help support its effort in combatting human trafficking. These resources have enabled the initiative to carry out comprehensive research on creating more awareness and investigations to ensure that the perpetrators have faced the law and justice has been served. Furthermore, the resources also help the blue campaign to offer training to educate its partners and the public. The policies and laws available enable the blue campaign to carry out investigations both on international and domestic cases of the victims and provide the necessary support. The initiative makes use of the authorities and skilled experts to rip off the traffickers of their profits and acquired asset incentives (“Resources Available for Victims,” 2021). The blue campaign has also collaborated with the US government and other partners to storm networks worldwide, and it has collaborated with non-governmental organizations to rescue victims. Policymakers are also formulating ways in which the health care system will attend to the victims and offer support in trying to solve the issue of human trafficking (Griffin, 2017). The organization has also designed new products for front-line medical providers at the local and state-level law enforcement. The protocols developed and the assessment tools are for managing the victims.
How Blue Campaign Organization Promotes Equal Opportunity to Improve the Victims’ Quality of Life
Many non-US citizens do not have the proper documentation to be in the United States, and this empowers the traffickers to have complete control of the victims by blackmailing and threatening them that they will expose them to the security if they fail to comply with their demands. Immigration relief is a law enforcement tool that provides relief to the victims by making them feel more secure and stabilizing their conditions in the United States. Living and surviving in the US while someone has no legal status is very hard, limiting the victim’s access to assistance services; therefore, immigration relief can assist victims even when they do not have legal status. Blue campaign ensures that victims who have been through severe trafficking conditions and have received certification from the health and human services, and minor victims who are under 18 have access to the benefits from the federal public. Through this, the organization can provide equal opportunity and improve the quality of life for all the victims (“Resources Available for Victims,” 2021). Even though the blue campaign is trying hard to fight human trafficking, it has had its fair share of challenges, such as many victims don’t step forward to receive help due to fear of the perpetrators, language barriers which make it hard to communicate, and also the fear of being exposed to the authorities (Greenbaum & Stoklosa, 2019). All these factors have contributed to human trafficking thriving as an invisible crime. Nurses are professional health workers; hence, they can participate in the organization by attending to the victims who need medical attention.
In summary, the blue campaign has played a significant role in influencing the health needs of the human trafficking victim by ensuring that they have access to proper medical attention, be it physical, reproductive, or mental. This has helped stabilize the lives of the survivors as they try to recover and learn to cope with life. Concerning safety needs, the organization has ensured that the law enforcement officials are adequately trained through webinars to know how to handle different victims and approach them while interviewing them to get information from them without adding salt to an injury again. The organization has also ensured that non-US citizens can access some services by being covered by immigration relief.
References
Greenbaum, J., & Stoklosa, H. (2019). The healthcare response to human trafficking: A need for globally harmonized ICD codes. PLOS Medicine, 16(5), e1002799. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pmed.1002799
Griffin, K. (2017). Embodied Rhetoric and the Blue Campaign: On Human Trafficking Awareness. Embodied Rhetoric and The Blue Campaign: On Human Trafficking Awareness. https://doi.org/10.18122/b2rm5j
Havig, K., & Mahapatra, N. (2020). Health-Care Providers’ Knowledge of Human Trafficking: Implications for Building Service Capacity in a Frontier State. Journal of Human Trafficking. https://doi.org/10.1080/23322705.2020.1747011
Hemmings, S., Jakobowitz, S., Abas, M., Bick, D., Howard, L., & Stanley, N. et al. (2016). Responding to the health needs of survivors of human trafficking: a systematic review. BMC Health Services Research, 16(1). https://doi.org/10.1186/s12913-016-1538-8
Resources Available for Victims. dhs.gov. (2021). Retrieved 1 October 2021, from https://www.dhs.gov/blue-campaign/resources-available-victims.
Zimmerman, C., & Kiss, L. (2017). Human trafficking and exploitation: A global health concern. PLOS Medicine, 14(11), e1002437. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pmed.1002437
