Every year on July 30, the world marks the United Nation's World Day Against Trafficking in Persons, which is a moment to confront human trafficking as one of the most persistent human rights crises of our time. To mark the moment this year, Thomson Reuters released an expanded research report, Unseen, Unknown and Unsolved: Disappearances and Trafficking of Indigenous Individuals in Canada and the United States, building on 2025 research that focused solely on Canada.

And in a recent webinar, Confronting Human Trafficking Today, we brought together four experts whose work spans data science, state government, Indigenous-led advocacy, and frontline survivor support. Together, their insights reveal both the scale of this crisis and a roadmap for how collaboration changes outcomes.

How cross-border data reveals suspected trafficking patterns

Our research expanded beyond Canada after analysts discovered a pattern of common phone numbers that posted sex ads in Canada claiming to feature Indigenous individuals also posting lots of sex ads in the United States.

Other staggering data points from the report include:

• Disappearances of Indigenous women and girls in Canada remain concentrated in Alberta, Saskatchewan, and Manitoba, although the Greater Toronto Area saw an increase, appearing in the top three places in Canada for disappearances.
• In the US, FBI data from 2024 counted around 5,600 missing Indigenous women, with more than 4,000 under the age of 18. Wyoming data shows Indigenous women there are missing, on average, 2.5-times longer than white counterparts.
• A new demand-side analysis of sex-buyer forums exposed racialized, targeted exploitation.

How a new investigative tech tool helped solve a 21-year-old cold case

In the webinar, Taylor Wencel, an intelligence specialist with Minnesota's Missing and Murdered Indigenous Relatives Office, which is the first office of its kind in the nation, showed how research can change outcomes on the ground. A chance encounter at a conference connected her with an analyst and his team, and this collaboration resulted in access to a tool that became part of her office's standard protocol.  The tool, known as Spotlight, helped crack open a 21-year-old cold case. "It's not what you know, it's who you know and how you work it together," she says, describing how multidisciplinary collaboration can make the difference for families.

Wencel was equally direct about dismantling harmful myths that delay action. "There is no wait period to report somebody missing — that's a false narrative," she says, adding that she hopes this can counter the outdated assumptions that still influence how some law enforcement agencies respond when an Indigenous person disappears.

Why Indigenous-led leadership is essential to solvingthis crisis

Hilda Anderson Pérez, president of Canada's National Family and Survivor Circle, spoke on the webinar and offered essential context as to why Indigenous leadership must be central to any solution. Her organization grew directly out of Canada's National Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls and its 231 Calls for Justice. The group is staffed entirely by impacted family members and survivors. "We recognize that often in many spaces, those who are directly impacted do not have their voices at tables," says Pérez, noting that her organization was built to close this gap.

Pérez also explains why rigorous data collection is inseparable from justice. "Data tells a story and data is evidence as well," she notes, explaining that without proper reporting mechanisms, decades of testimony from families and survivors risk falling on deaf ears.

Why ending trafficking requires an interdiscplinary response

Another webinar participant, Julia Drydek, Executive Director of the Canadian Centre to End Human Trafficking, brought the frontline perspective, describing human trafficking as a "wicked social problem" because it is complex, interconnected, and resistant to single-sector fixes. Still, Drydek was emphatic that the challenge is not insurmountable.

"We refuse to acknowledge that human trafficking is something we're not capable of eradicating. That's our entire focus," Drydek says, calling for schools, financial institutions, tech companies, and resource industries alike to see themselves as part of the solution.

What a shared, actionable solution to sex trafficking looks like

A structural solution to combat trafficking, exploitation, and the disappearance of Indigenous women and girls requires commitments from the whole society to eradicate poverty, systemic racism, and long-standing gaps in how missing persons cases are investigated. Real progress shows the need for data that policymakers can act upon, tools that connect frontline investigators across borders, Indigenous-led solutions that are rooted in accountability, and a society-wide commitment to prevention.

As the report and the webinar makes clear, everyone has a role to play. Readers are encouraged to access the full report, share it widely, and support the hotlines and organizations that are working every day to make sure no one remains unseen, unknown, or unsolved.

To report suspected cases of human trafficking in the United States, contact the National Human Trafficking Hotline at 1-888-373-7888. And to report suspected cases of human trafficking in Canada, contact the Canadian Human Trafficking Hotline at 1-833-900-1010.

You can view the recent webinar, Confronting Human Trafficking Today, here