The Exodus Road helped law enforcement support a Brazilian couple being exploited through human smuggling

Human trafficking and human smuggling are separate crimes — but they are often connected.

Human trafficking involves the exploitation of someone’s labor or body for another person’s profit; movement is not required for this crime to take place. Human smuggling specifically involves someone being paid to move another person illegally, such as across borders. Human smuggling can become trafficking when the people being moved are tricked into labor or trapped at their destination while someone else profits.

In one smuggling case, a couple from Brazil had ended up becoming victims of yet another adjacent crime: abduction.

They’d paid a smuggler to transport them. Instead, they were kidnapped, trapped, and told that they had to pay a high ransom to be freed.

The Exodus Road’s global team heard from the couple’s sister, who had been receiving threats and demands for the steep ransom payment. She asked for help recovering her family.

Brazilian law enforcement is equipped with training and technology from The Exodus Road to help combat the complexities of these interrelated crimes. (Image representative)

Brazilian law enforcement is equipped with training and technology from The Exodus Road to help combat the complexities of these interrelated crimes. The Exodus Road also helped coordinate the formal report to law enforcement. After being held for over 30 days far from home, the couple came home with repatriation support from The Exodus Road’s team. 

The husband, wife, and the sister who reported the case are all dealing with aftershocks of trauma from the experience. But now, they are safe to heal.

Two men who perpetrated their exploitation were arrested. The perpetrators will be facing charges of migrant smuggling, kidnapping and unlawful deprivation of liberty, and participation in a criminal organization. 

This case is not a traditional trafficking case. But it is an example of how multiple types of crime can be related to each other — and how championing justice in one area often leads to more widespread freedom.

Thank you for changing the face of global exploitation with us!