Human Trafficking is the enslavement and transporting of people, primarily women, children, and ethnic minorities for the purpose of exploitation.
Victims
Most often they are forced into prostitution, forced labor, and soldiering. The rate of trafficking from a country increases after civil unrest or war. Often the victims have been tricked by promises of economic advancement and legal work. The primary social factors that support human trafficking are increasing demands for cheap labor, the expanding sex tourism trade, increasing demands for adoption-available children, and poor law enforcement.
People Smuggling
Human trafficking is different from "people smuggling". People smuggling refers to a person who is seeking to cross an international border through an unauthorized entry point. People smuggling is a term used by refugees fleeing from prosecution. In human trafficking, people are usually tricked or forced during the process of being transported. When a person is 'smuggled', the transport is usually voluntary, and the person being transported sometimes pays a fee.
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Human Trafficking Central Figures
- Eastern Europe
- BBC: Europe Warned over Trafficking (August 30, 2006)
- BBC: A Modern Slave's Brutal Odyssey (November 3, 2004)
- UNICEF: Root Causes of Human Trafficking in South Eastern Europe... (March 31, 2004)
- World Socialist Web Site: Child Trafficking in Eastern Europe (October 25, 2003)
- MSNBC: Europe's Trade in Women (June 2001)
- Asia
- BBC: Asia's Child Sex Victims Ignored (January 1, 2008)
- Human Trafficking in Asia: Human Trafficking in Asia
- Asia News: NEPAL A Project against Human Trafficking (October 29,, 2007)
- Reuters: Human Trafficking Helps Spread HIV/AIDS in Asia (August 22, 2007)
- The New York Times: Sex Slaves Returning Home Raise AIDS Risks (August 1, 2007)
- BBC News: Asia's Sex Trade is 'Slavery' (February 20, 2003)
- Africa
- Human Rights Tribune: Human Trafficking 'On the Rise' in Africa (June 22, 2007)
- Stop Demand: trafficking (April 23, 2004)
- BBC: Nigeria's 'Respectable' Slave Trade (April 17, 2004)
- UNESCO: Project to Fight Human Trafficking in Africa
References
Fast Facts
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Fact:
Women comprise over 80 percent of trafficked persons.
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Fact:
U.S. State Department estimates 600,000 to 820,000 are trafficked yearly.
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Fact:
Most trafficked persons become commercially exploited sexually.
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Fact:
40-50 percent of victims are minors
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Fact:
Slavery is illegal in every country globally
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Fact:
Most trafficked children are from Asia.
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Fact:
FBI estimates annual $9.5 billion global revenue
