February 22 is National Human Trafficking Awareness Day.
This year, public attention to human trafficking is especially intense, driven by the release of the Epstein files. The Epstein case makes it painfully clear that despite years of efforts to combat trafficking, many women and girls continue to be exploited with little to no accountability or justice, and survivors still struggle to be believed.
As an organization committed to addressing trafficking, we ask a difficult but necessary question:
Why are we as a society still failing victims and survivors of trafficking?
Despite ongoing public concern, effective solutions are still limited.
What isn’t working, and why?
Part of the problem is that human trafficking has generated what many scholars and advocates describe as a moral panic. Moral panic works best when the threat feels frightening but vague. When people are told there are hidden threats or lurking strangers, fear increases without requiring anyone to examine how harm actually occurs, or in this case, how effectively human trafficking is being addressed.
When there is a concrete reason for outrage—such as powerful people exploiting others with impunity and the systems that protect such abusers, as exposed by the Epstein case—moral panic does not translate into action and, ironically, becomes less helpful for trafficking victims.
Epstein’s trafficking was real. The survivors are real. The people connected to him are wealthy and politically influential. This reality does not fit neatly into a story about isolated ‘bad men’ or stranger danger. It is a story about systems of power, influence, money, and silence.
Too often, instead of leading to accountability or justice, public conversation drifts back toward vague narratives about individual perpetrators waiting to abduct people or about extreme, isolated cases. These stories feel urgent and emotional, but they distract from the everyday, systemic ways exploitation is enabled, normalized, and ignored. Where is the outrage over the prominent politicians and celebrities linked to Epstein? Where did all the concern over trafficking rings and covert, rampant exploitation go? Here is a real, tangible trafficking issue, yet many of the voices and institutions that often speak out against such harms have been notably quiet.
In this context, moral panic is not actually about stopping harm. It is about deflecting criticism from the economic and political systems, institutions, and social norms that create and deepen vulnerability, as well as from the ineffectiveness of many popular anti-trafficking approaches. Moral panic offers people something to be afraid of, without asking them to learn more deeply about human trafficking, change anything fundamental, or engage in meaningful action.
Awareness is important, but how we respond to that awareness matters even more.
On National Human Trafficking Awareness Day, GAATW Canada calls for actions against human trafficking that:
- Truly believe and centre victims and survivors, and
- Address the institutions and systems that create vulnerability to exploitation and demand accountability;
Awareness must be paired with meaningful, evidence-based, rights-respecting action grounded in the lived experiences of survivors and marginalized communities. Anything less risks perpetuating the very harms we claim to oppose.
There’s a Better Way
That’s why, in a few weeks, GAATW Canada will launch a national campaign, “There’s a Better Way.” This online campaign will focus on anti-trafficking information and knowledge sharing, encouraging Canadians to learn that something is not working in the ways human trafficking is being addressed, and to explore more effective approaches that support better long-term outcomes for people experiencing exploitation and trafficking.
Let’s not let what we’ve learned from the Epstein case be added to the long list of profound injustices that desensitize us and become background noise. If we care about human trafficking, we must confront the systemic ways that power and wealth for the few enable the vulnerability and exploitation of the many. It’s profit-over-people systems and policies that create the conditions for exploitation and trafficking to flourish, and also make it difficult to address the issue and hold anyone accountable for the harms caused.
For now, please share this with a friend who may be struggling to make sense of these issues, and encourage them to sign up for updates on “There’s a Better Way” and other GAATW Canada content in the days ahead.