31:8 Project was created to "Speak up for those who cannot speak for themselves", in regards to human trafficking. In order to prevent this crime from growing, we are educating and collaborating with all types of people and other organizations. We are currently focusing our energy and resources on labor and s*x trafficking taking place in North Dakota. To understand the scope of the problem, here is a brief overview of what human trafficking looks like. Slavery has played a huge role throughout history but unfortunately it has never disappeared. Due to the increase of the world population, global traveling, and rapid social and economic changes, has made it less difficult to move people around the world. Human trafficking is a form of modern-day slavery and involves the movement of people by means of violence, deception or coercion for the purpose of forced labor, servitude, or slavery-like practices. Victims are trafficked for a wide variety of purposes such as s*x acts, agricultural work, or housekeeping, yet they all share the loss of one of our world’s most cherished rights – freedom. There is no one consistent face of a trafficking victim nor no one consistent face of a trafficker. It is estimated that human trafficking is a $150 billion per year industry, second only to drug trafficking and equal in scope to arms dealing. Although we do not know the exact number, it has been estimated that there are over 30 million slaves in the world today, more than at the height of the Trans-Atlantic slave trade. More people are in slavery today than at any point in history. The U.S. State Department estimates that 600,000-800,000 people are trafficked in the United States annually. It is essential that we give a voice to the voiceless when it comes too human trafficking!
