What is human trafficking?
Will be collecting some info for you over the next few weeks... By no means am I an expert; but I thought it might be helpful to share as I learn!
Human trafficking is...
... BEING BOUGHT & SOLD AGAINST YOUR WILL
To be deceived or taken against your will, bought, sold and transported into slavery. For sexual exploitation, forced begging, sacrificial worship or removal of human organs, as child brides or into sweat shops, circuses, farm labour and domestic servitude.
... GROWING AT AN ALARMING RATE
9.1 million men, women and children are trafficked across borders and within their own country at any given moment in time. It is the worlds fastest growing global crime.
... VIOLENT
Victims are coerced. Many suffer repeated physical abuse, fear, torture and/or threats to their family. These tactics are used by traffickers to break a persons spirit and enable the trafficker to continue to exert power over those they have trafficked.
... AND THE UN DEFINITION OF HUMAN TRAFFIKING:
"The recruitment, transportation, transfer, harbouring or receipt of persons, by means of the threat or use of force or other forms of coercion, of abduction, of fraud, of deception, of the abuse of power or of a position of vulnerability or of the giving or receiving of payments or benefits to achieve the consent of a person having control over another person, for the purpose of exploitation"
... BEING BOUGHT & SOLD AGAINST YOUR WILL
To be deceived or taken against your will, bought, sold and transported into slavery. For sexual exploitation, forced begging, sacrificial worship or removal of human organs, as child brides or into sweat shops, circuses, farm labour and domestic servitude.
... GROWING AT AN ALARMING RATE
9.1 million men, women and children are trafficked across borders and within their own country at any given moment in time. It is the worlds fastest growing global crime.
... VIOLENT
Victims are coerced. Many suffer repeated physical abuse, fear, torture and/or threats to their family. These tactics are used by traffickers to break a persons spirit and enable the trafficker to continue to exert power over those they have trafficked.
... AND THE UN DEFINITION OF HUMAN TRAFFIKING:
"The recruitment, transportation, transfer, harbouring or receipt of persons, by means of the threat or use of force or other forms of coercion, of abduction, of fraud, of deception, of the abuse of power or of a position of vulnerability or of the giving or receiving of payments or benefits to achieve the consent of a person having control over another person, for the purpose of exploitation"
The Scale of Human Trafficking:
- Men, women and children are trafficked within their own countries and across international borders. Trafficking affects every continent and every country.
- Every country is affected by human trafficking, whether it's an origin country where people are trafficked from; a transit country where people are trafficked through; or a destination country where people are trafficked to. Often a country will be all three. Men, women and children are trafficked.
- Due to the hidden and illegal nature of human trafficking, gathering statistics on the scale of the problem is difficult. The following statistics may represent an underestimation, but are the most credible and frequently quoted.
- People trafficking is the fastest growing means by which people are enslaved, the fastest growing international crime, and one of the largest sources of income for organised crime.— The UN Office on Drugs and Crime
- 1.2 million children are trafficked every year— Estimate by UNICEF
- Human trafficking is the second largest source of illegal income worldwide exceeded only by drugs trafficking.— Belser 2005
- 600,000-800,000 men, women and children are trafficked across international borders each year. Approximately 80 per cent are women and girls. Up to 50% are minors.— US Department of State Trafficking in Persons Report 2007
- At least 20.9 million people are victims of forced labour worldwide. While it is difficult to establish a precise amount, conservative 2012 research estimated trafficking victims as comprising some 44 per cent of this figure.—ILO 2012 Global Estimate of Forced Labour
- There are even reports that some trafficking groups are switching their cargo from drugs to human beings, in a search of high profits at lower risk. — The UN Office on Drugs and Crime
- The majority of trafficked victims arguably come from the poorest countries and poorest strata of the national population.— A global alliance against forced labour, International Labor Organisation, 2005