How Do Human Traffickers Trap their Victims?

Many assume the tragedy of human trafficking begins with a violent abduction. But "In my twenty plus years of working in [advocacy against] trafficking, I have met one person...who's been kidnapped and literally thrown in the boot of a car. What we find is traffickers are much too sophisticated for that, much too pragmatic for that. It's much easier to bring someone along willingly," explains Martina Vandenberg, founder and president of the Human Trafficking Legal Center. In this interview from the FPA archives, she describes how human traffickers in Mexico entrapped women into romantic relationships, trafficked them up the eastern seaboard into the United States, then held their children hostage to keep them from escaping.