Human Trafficking & Survivor Reintegration
Human trafficking is unambiguously immoral and universally illegal, yet it is the fastest growing and third largest criminal industry in the world. That is because it is alarmingly profitable for traffickers, despite the harm that it causes for trafficking victims. And unfortunately, the risk factors that impact vulnerable people are intensifying with the isolation, unpredictably, and economic instability brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic.
Our research is focused on identifying solutions to reduce the risk of trafficking for vulnerable individuals. By illuminating the economic impacts of modern slavery and developing tools to reduce the risk of victimization, we inspire and mobilize stakeholders and the next generation of leaders to engage in education, policymaking, advocacy, intervention, and rehabilitation activities in Orange County, CA and across the developed world.
Latest News & Research
In the Field: Kelsey Morgan’s Freedom Greenlight
Restore recently highlighted the work of Blum Center researcher Kelsey Morgan in their report, Impact Unlocked: How 10 organizations are measuring impact of anti-trafficking services. The report highlights Morgan’s work developing the Freedom Greenlight and...
In the News: Kelsey Morgan Explains Trends in Trafficking Data, Introduces Freedom Greenlight Tool
Kelsey Morgan, a UC Irvine Blum Center PhD candidate and co-founder of the anti-trafficking nonprofit EverFree, was recently quoted in The Orange County Business Journal. Morgan spoke about track records of identifying, intervening, and recovering sex trafficking...
LA Times Names Kelsey Morgan as an Orange County Visionary
Recently, the LA Times named UC Irvine Blum Center researcher Kelsey Morgan an Orange County visionary. Morgan was profiled for her work with EverFree, an organization aimed at ending human trafficking and helping survivors. Morgan has impacted the lives of...
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Kelsey Morgan is the founder and executive director of Willow International. She lived in Uganda from 2010 to 2013 where she led an anti-trafficking organization. She founded Willow to meet the growing demand for aftercare services and to eradicate the global human trafficking epidemic. She holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in International Studies from UC Irvine and is currently obtaining her PhD at UC Irvine’s School of Social Ecology.
What We Know
Modern Slavery will not end until the profits disappear.
Despite universal opposition to slavery on moral grounds, the practice is growing across the world, due to its immense and immediate profitability to slavers. Our spending behavior fuels slavery’s profitability through consumerism. Many things that we buy and use every day can be and often are used to exploit people, especially children.
Our consumerism fuels exploitation thereby subsidizing this repugnant practice. The goods and services linked to slavery are only profitable to a few, and they are costly for everyone else. The costs of helping people who have been exploited and traumatized — legal services, medical care, job training and so on — are enormous, and they fall on all of us.
Recommended Reading
United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) issues report with preliminary findings of how the COVID-19 pandemic is impacting trafficking in persons.