What is human trafficking?
The fastest-growing criminal enterprise
Human trafficking is the business of recruiting, transporting and/or harbouring people for the purpose of exploiting them. Traffickers trick, manipulate, or physically force their victims into working under inhumane conditions. Human trafficking includes forced labor in the private economy (imposed by individuals, groups, companies), state-imposed forced labor, and the forced sexual exploitation of adults and commercial sexual exploitation of children. Annual profits of traffickers worldwide exceed those of Microsoft, Wells Fargo, Samsung, J.P. Morgan, and Apple combined.
Anyone could become a victim of human trafficking
Human trafficking can happen to anyone, but some people and sectors are more vulnerable than others. Risk factors may include poverty, forces migration due to natural disasters or war, recent migration/relocation, substance use, mental health issues and being a runaway or homeless youth. Women are more affected than men.
A crime present in many parts of the private economy
Forced labor happens mostly in construction, manufacturing, agriculture, the fishing industry, and to the greatest degree in domestic work. Low-skilled workers in these fields face a set of hazards and harms, including dangerous work environments, verbal, physical, and sexual abuse, and low to no wages.
A business that involves personal debt
51% of the men and women subjected to forced labor are in debt bondage, which means that personal debt is used to forcibly obtain labor from them. This proportion increases to more than 70% in the agriculture, domestic work, and manufacturing sector.
For 1 out of 5 victims, it means sexual exploitation
Sexual exploitation refers to the sexual abuse of women, men, or children through the exchange of sex or sexual acts for food, shelter, protection, other basics of life, and/or money. It takes place on all continents, with a vast majority of cases taking place in the Asia/Pacific region. An estimated 3.8 million adults are victims of forced sexual exploitation and a million children are victims of commercial sexual exploitation. 99% of the victims are women and girls. Sexual exploitation takes place in:
Read more:
U.S. Department of State’s Trafficking In Persons 2020 Report
Think you know someone who might be a human trafficking victim but don’t know how you can help?