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    Survivors of trafficking

    Survivors of trafficking: A safe place to live, care that heals, and a way forward.

    About 28 million people were in forced labor worldwide in 2021. In the US, the national hotline identified 21,457 victims in 2025, far fewer than the people still unseen.

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    Ryan K. Hertel · heyitskenton

    The problem

    What we're up against.

    • Millions, in every kind of work.

      An estimated 50 million people were living in modern slavery in 2021: 28 million in forced labor and 22 million in forced marriage. Migrant workers are more than three times as likely to be in forced labor.

    • A profitable crime.

      Forced labor in the private economy makes $236 billion a year in illegal profits.

    • Most are never identified.

      One estimate puts about 1.1 million people in modern slavery in the US, while the national hotline identified 15,085 cases in 2025.

    • Deep wounds to heal.

      Around one in two survivors of sexual exploitation meet the criteria for PTSD, depression or anxiety.

    What works

    Proven, and ready to grow.

    • Housing built around survivors.

      A federal report to Congress found the programs that serve survivors best are trauma-informed and centered on what survivors choose.

    • Services that show progress.

      A review of 15 studies of services for survivors found moderate improvement on most measures after care, though every study measured people only before and after, with no comparison group.

    • Legal status, and a future.

      The government granted T visas, which let survivors stay and rebuild, to 3,786 victims in a year.

    • Help that reaches thousands.

      Justice Department grantees served 17,561 people in a year, with about $66.2 million in awards for victim services.

    What a family could fund

    Where the money goes furthest.

    • A year of safe housing and support.

      A recovery program in Miami budgets $1,092,560 a year for about 30 survivors, with a crisis stay, then up to a year of rent help, case management and counseling.

    • Case managers.

      Federal case management for survivors born in the US cost more than $4.4 million for 782 people.

    • Fill the gaps the caps leave.

      Federal programs for survivors from other countries cap direct help at $6,000 a person. The government's own review calls services and safe housing inadequate.

    Honest limits

    What money can't promise.

    • The evidence is thin.

      An earlier review found only six studies that qualified, most poorly designed, and substance use care, a common need, has barely been studied.

    • Raids can do harm.

      In Mumbai, police raids pushed exploitation underground, leaving people more hidden and more vulnerable. Even in the US, some victims were still arrested for acts they were forced into.

    • The numbers are rough.

      Hotline figures don't measure how common trafficking is, and federal agencies can't tell when they've counted the same person more than once.

    • Money can't speed the paperwork.

      T visa applications took a median of 14.9 months to process.

    Hard questions

    Asked and answered.

    1. You might ask

      Aren't the numbers exaggerated?

      Ryan

      The large figures are estimates from surveys, not counts, and identified cases are far fewer. A chapter like this says both.

    2. You might ask

      If the evidence is thin, why fund services?

      Ryan

      Because the needs are concrete: housing far short of demand, and studies that, though weak, mostly show people improving. Funding can pay for real evaluation too.

    3. You might ask

      Could this money do harm?

      Ryan

      It could, if it went to raids or forced rescue. Voluntary, survivor-centered housing and care are the safer path.

    In the slider

    See what your fortune could do here.

    Survivors of trafficking

    The slider prices this cause with these numbers:

    • About $36,419 gives one survivor a year of housing, case management and counseling: a Miami program's $1,092,560 budget for about 30 people.
    • The whole need is the 21,457 victims the national hotline identified in 2025.
    • One program's own budget, and not every survivor needs a year of housing. Far more people are never identified.
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    More of the Blueprint

    Keep reading.

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    Sources

    Every number in this chapter, and where it came from.

    1. Source 1: 50 million people worldwide in modern slavery (opens in a new tab)

      International Labour Organization, 12 September 2022. Checked 16 October 2026.

      Estimates from surveys, made with Walk Free and the International Organization for Migration.

    2. Source 2: National statistics (opens in a new tab)

      National Human Trafficking Hotline. Checked 16 October 2026.

      Cases identified through the hotline, which Polaris runs. They are not a count of everyone affected.

    3. Source 3: Annual profits from forced labour amount to US$ 236 billion, ILO report finds (opens in a new tab)

      International Labour Organization, 19 March 2024. Checked 16 October 2026.

    4. Source 4: Modern slavery in United States (opens in a new tab)

      Walk Free. Checked 16 October 2026.

      A modeled estimate for 2021, from the Global Slavery Index. It includes forced marriage.

    5. Source 5: Mental health burden among survivors of sexual-exploitation trafficking: a global systematic review, meta-analysis, and meta-regression (opens in a new tab)

      Archives of Women's Mental Health, 17 September 2026. Checked 16 October 2026.

    6. Source 6: HUD Releases First-of-its-Kind Report to Congress on the Housing Needs of Survivors of Human Trafficking (opens in a new tab)

      US Department of Housing and Urban Development, 21 March 2024. Checked 16 October 2026.

    7. Source 7: Do Social Service Interventions for Human Trafficking Survivors Work? A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis (Schroeder and others) (opens in a new tab)

      Trauma, Violence and Abuse, 28 October 2023. Checked 16 October 2026.

    8. Source 8: 2025 Trafficking in Persons Report: United States (opens in a new tab)

      US Department of State, 30 September 2025. Checked 16 October 2026.

      The government's own account of the federal year that ended in September 2024.

    9. Source 9: Local Funding Initiative Request FY 2026-2027: Camillus House Phoenix Human Trafficking Recovery Program (opens in a new tab)

      The Florida Senate, 3 November 2025. Checked 16 October 2026.

      The program's own budget, in a request for state funding, in Miami.

    10. Source 10: TVAP and Aspire Evaluation (opens in a new tab)

      U.S. Committee for Refugees and Immigrants, September 2025. Checked 16 October 2026.

      An evaluation by the organization that runs the federal programs.

    11. Source 11: Helping Survivors of Human Trafficking: A Systematic Review of Exit and Postexit Interventions (Dell and others) (opens in a new tab)

      Trauma, Violence and Abuse, 8 February 2017. Checked 16 October 2026.

    12. Source 12: Interventions to Support Substance Use Recovery Among Human Trafficking Survivors: A Scoping Review (Dell and others) (opens in a new tab)

      Journal of Evidence-Based Social Work, 31 May 2026. Checked 16 October 2026.

    13. Source 13: Considering risk contexts in explaining the paradoxical HIV increase among female sex workers in Mumbai and Thane, India (Bandewar and others) (opens in a new tab)

      BMC Public Health, 28 January 2016. Checked 16 October 2026.