STOPPING HUMAN TRAFFICKING: 

How to Identify and Report It

WHAT IS HUMAN TRAFFICKING?

Human trafficking is a form of abuse or exploitation in 

which individuals are forced, coerced, or lured with 

false promises of employment and a better life. Under 

Federal law, “severe forms of trafficking in persons” 

can be broken into two categories:

• Sex Trafficking:  recruitment, harboring, 

transportation, provision, obtaining, patronizing, or 

soliciting of a person for the purpose of a commercial 

sex act where the commercial sex act is induced by 

force, fraud, or coercion, or the person being 

induced to perform such act is under 18 years of age.

• Labor Trafficking: recruitment, harboring, 

transportation, provision, or obtaining of a person 

for labor or services through use of force, fraud, or 

coercion for the purpose of involuntary servitude, 

peonage, debt bondage, or slavery.

HOW DOES TRAFFICKING OCCUR?

Trafficking occurs when the trafficker uses force, 

fraud, or coercion to compel labor/services or a 

commercial sex act, or when a victim induced to 

perform commercial sex is under age 18.

WHO COULD BE A VICTIM OF HUMAN 

TRAFFICKING?

Any person can become a victim. Some individuals are 

more at risk than others and may be targeted —

undocumented workers, temporary foreign workers, 

substance users, mental health sufferers, homeless 

or runaway youth, and individuals experiencing

economic hardship.

HOW DO YOU IDENTIFY HUMAN TRAFFICKING? 

There are situations that provide clues to identifying

human trafficking, and certain industries where human

trafficking is more likely to occur. A few examples are

agricultural or farm work, construction, seafood, 

landscaping, hotels, restaurants, and domestic work. 

Victims of human trafficking may lack freedom of 

mobility or means of communication, lose the ability to 

speak for themselves, suffer loss of control of their

own identification documents (ID or passport) or 

access to their own money, may reside in the 

employer’s home, workplace, or in trafficker-controlled 

housing, sometimes in large irregular sleeping 

arrangements, and may not know the name of their 

employer, or what city and state they are in. 

HOW DO YOU REPORT HUMAN TRAFFICKING?

If you or someone you know is in an environment where 

human trafficking is suspected, you should call 911. You 

can also tell any law enforcement, emergency responder, 

doctor’s office, hospital, faith-based community, 

community advocate, OSHA staff visiting your worksite, 

or someone else you may trust to help you. You or 

someone you trust can call the National Human 

Trafficking Hotline at 1-888-373-7888; text “BeFree” 

(233733); or LiveChat humantraffickinghotline.org.

OSHA is committed to working toward creating a safe 

and hazard-free workplace for ALL workers. While OSHA 

does not have the authority to investigate or prosecute 

trafficking crimes, whether labor or sex trafficking, OSHA 

may refer potential trafficking cases to federal, state or 

local law enforcement that we might identify at 

workplaces. For more information on workers’ safety 

and health rights and how to report labor violations,

please go to www.osha.gov or call us at 1-800-321-OSHA 

(6742). If You See Something, Report it. 

1-800-321-OSHA (6742) | TTY 1-877-889-5627 | osha.gov/workers

OSHA 4206-02 2023