PRESS RELEASE
Contact: G. Lawrence DeMarco, LLM
Email: ldemarco@menandboys.net
Phone: +1-215-901-1930
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Male Survivors of Labor Trafficking Speak Out — ICMB Urges Global Action to Support Boys Left Behind
May 1, 2025 – A surge in male trafficking victims reveals a hidden crisis long ignored by global institutions and policymakers. While human trafficking takes many forms, the growing vulnerability of men and boys to forced labor — the most widespread form of trafficking — demands urgent attention.
Human trafficking manifests primarily in two forms: forced labor and sexual exploitation. (1)
Male victims make up the single group to be increasingly detected, a three per cent rise from 2019 of all trafficking victims. (2) This crisis was recently spotlighted in the 2023 Trafficking in Persons Report, (3) revealing a fivefold increase in both types of boy victims between 2014 and 2020, and how prevailing stereotypes hinder their identification and recovery. Despite accounting for nearly half of all trafficking victims, boys receive only a fraction of the services (4).
Although the numbers are staggering: 97 million boys are in child labor, more than the 63 million girls, (5) support remains overwhelmingly focused on girls.
In a deeply moving interview on Internet Safety with Donna Rice Hughes, survivor Jerome Elam unveiled the harrowing reality of male child trafficking, exposing a hidden epidemic too long overlooked. (6) Elam’s story, beginning with sexual abuse at age five and spanning years of trafficking and exploitation, is not an isolated case. A recent investigative feature, The Silenced Minority, exposes how male survivors face compounded barriers such as shame, institutional bias, and an alarming lack of shelters, health services, and legal aid. (7).
These stories are not just data points. In Migrant Sex Trafficking Survivor Speaks Out, a 20-year-old migrant shared his trauma of being trafficked across borders, beaten, and addicted to fentanyl for control. His rescue to Bob’s House of Hope — the first shelter in the U.S. for male sex trafficking survivors — is a rare beacon in a barren field of services for boys (8).
The challenges facing male victims are compounded by a rarely discussed reality: many traffickers themselves are women. The UN Office on Drugs and Crime 2022 Global Report on Trafficking in Persons highlights a substantial number of female perpetrators: women account for 40 per cent of the people convicted of trafficking in persons in 2020, and in Eastern Europe and Central Asia, 81% of convictions for trafficking in persons in 2018. (2)
The International Council for Men and Boys (ICMB) calls on all stakeholders to:
- Expand trauma-informed services specifically for male trafficking victims;
- Fund shelters and mental health resources accessible to boys;
- Train professionals to identify and support male survivors;
- Launch public awareness campaigns that dismantle the myth of the “male perpetrator” and acknowledge male victimization (1).
The International Council for Men and Boys is a non-governmental organization that is working to celebrate the contributions of men to society and to end the 12 sex disparities that affect men and boys around the world. Achieving #GenderEqualityForMen will also benefit women. https://www.menandboys.net/
Links:
- https://menandboys.net/boys/
- https://www.unodc.org/documents/data-and-analysis/glotip/2022/GLOTiP_2022_web.pdf
- https://www.state.gov/wp-content/uploads/2023/06/2023-TIP-Report.pdf
- https://sihma.org.za/Blog-on-the-move/overlooked-for-too-long-boys-and-human-trafficking
- https://www.ilo.org/publications/major-publications/child-labour-global-estimates-2020-trends-and-road-forward
- https://youtu.be/3GyK0H2liI4?si=fUzG_t3TKiOH3qEl
- https://org/the-silenced-minority/
- https://www.foxnews.com/us/migrant-sex-trafficking-survivor-speaks-out-i-saw-good-people-die