Human trafficking is the act of exploiting someone through force, fraud, or coercion for purposes such as forced labor or commercial sex acts. It's often assumed that a trafficked victim must be moved across borders or taken from one place to another. In reality, trafficking can happen close to home. Someone can be trafficked without ever leaving their own community or hometown.

Anyone can become a victim regardless of age, race, gender, nationality, or income level. Traffickers often use lies, manipulation, threats, or force to exploit others.

Human trafficking occurs in hotels, restaurants, retail businesses, construction sites, fishing industries, private homes, and other workplaces. In tourism-driven communities like the Outer Banks, seasonal and temporary workers may face increased risks because they are often far from home, unfamiliar with local resources, and dependent on others for transportation, housing, or employment.

The reality is that most victims are trafficked by someone they know: a partner, spouse, friend, neighbor, relative or parent. Those that find themselves in bonded work, domestic servitude, or forced prostitution can be held behind locked doors but often victims are hiding in plain sight at construction sites, hotels, restaurants, nail salons and in the agricultural and fishing industries. Labor trafficking accounts for over 60% of all trafficking worldwide. Victims walk among us, invisible, with no voice and no choice.