Final answer:
Victims of trafficking can be children, adults, and animals, subjected to exploitation through various coercive means such as forced labor and sexual slavery. The Trafficking Victims Protection Reauthorization Act provides certain protections for minors, and trafficking can affect individuals of any gender or age. Plants are not considered victims of trafficking as they cannot be exploited in the same manner.
Step-by-step explanation:
Victims of trafficking can be children, adults, and animals. Human trafficking involves the recruitment, transportation, transfer, and/or harboring of persons by means of threat or force for the purpose of exploitation. This heinous act encompasses various forms of coercion, including forced labor, sexual slavery, and modern slavery.
The William Wilberforce Trafficking Victims Protection Reauthorization Act of 2008 ensures that unaccompanied minors who do not share a border with the United States are entitled to a hearing with an immigration judge, where they may seek asylum based on credible fear of persecution or torture. Furthermore, victims of human trafficking are not limited to any gender or age group; men, women, and children worldwide suffer from this violation of human rights, with data suggesting a significant number of these trafficked individuals pass through airports and official border control points.
Illegal migrants are often vulnerable to smuggling rings leading to multiple victimizations, including trafficking. While the term trafficking commonly refers to humans, animals are also trafficked for various purposes, ranging from illegal trade to exploitation for entertainment. Plants, however, do not fall under the category of trafficking victims as plants cannot be exploited in the same coercive manner characteristic of trafficking.