Human Trafficking
and the Sex Trade.

Human Trafficking is big business for global crime gangs generating huge sums of money for less risk than drug trafficking.

Michelle Bachelet, Executive Director of UN Women, said in April 2012:

"It's difficult to think of a crime more hideous
and shocking than human trafficking. Yet, it is
one of the fastest growing and lucrative crimes".

America's Dirty Secret: Child Sex Trafficking...Published on Jul 11, 2011 by AssociatedPress.

Human Trafficking... Facts & Figures:

• Over 2.5 million humans are trafficked each each year around the world (ref: United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime... Executive Director Yuri Fedotov).
  
  
• 80% of these are exploited as sex slaves.
  
  
• 2 out of every 3 victims are women.
  
  
• 17% are forced into slave labor in sweat shops or homes.
  
  
• Trafficking of women, men, and children generated over $32 billion in 2005. (ref:ILO)
  
  
• Forced labor deprived victims of $21 billion in 2009. (ref:International Labour Organization).
  
  
• Only 1 in 100 victims are ever rescued.
  
  
• "We must change the attitudes of male dominated police departments around the world who place this type of crime at the lowest level of their law enforcement priorities"... (they often forget) "who is the victim and who is the criminal" by criminalizing the prostitutes rather than the perpetrators... Emeritus Professor Law M. Cherif Bassiouni, DePaul University, Chicago.
  
  
• Traffickers are often the same nationality as their victims.
  
  
• Women are often used to recruit other women. Many victims are recruited with the help of relatives, friends, or acquaintances.
  
  
• Victims identified in 2006 by the UNODC were 66% women, 13% girls, 12% men, and 9% boys.
  
  
• Many victims come from impoverished regions and are deceived with the promise of employment in the hospitality industry or as nannies, dancers, models, entertainers, or masseuses only to have their passports confiscated. Once entrapped they are often subjected to violence and rape, and forced to pay back inflated smuggling fees.
  
  
• The Top 10 destination countries for human traffickers in 2011 were the Russian Federation, Haiti, Yemen, Thailand, Kazakhstan, Afghanistan, Indonesia, Poland, Egypt, and Turkey. (ref: International Organization for Migration).
  
  
• The Top 10 countries of origin of human trafficking victims in 2011 were Ukraine, Haiti, Yemen, Laos, Uzbekistan, Cambodia, Kyrgystan, Afghanistan, Belarus, and Ethiopia. (ref: IOM)
  
  
• The UNODC estimates there are around 1 million sex workers in Europe and that 1 in 7 European sex workers may be a trafficking victim.
  
  

Human trafficking plagues... Uploaded by AlJazeeraEnglish on Jul 30, 2009.

Human Trafficking Flow Patterns:

The end of the Cold War sparked a major flow of trafficked Eastern European women into West European sex markets (ref:UNODC).

The UNODC estimates around 70,000 victims were trafficked annually to Europe alone from 2005-2007, with around 60% sourced from Romania, Moldova, Bulgaria, Ukraine, and the Russian Federation. Roughly 13% are brought in from Latin America, 5% from Africa, and 3% from East Asia.

However, human traffickers rings adapt very quickly. If law enforcement measures or public awareness make doing business more difficult or costly in one country, they quickly move to other regions where they can find new victims to exploit. There are always countries where poverty, lawlessness, and civil strife make it easy for traffickers to prey on the vulnerable.

Italian sex trade fueled by human trafficking... AlJazeera News, Aug 10, 2011.

Ways to Fight Human Traffickers:

• Improve economic conditions and law enforcement in the countries of origin.
  
  
• Establish awareness programs in the source countries to alert potential victims.
  
  
• Coordinate law enforcement at a global level as crime gangs constantly change inter-continental trafficking routes.
  
  
• Strengthen law enforcement agencies in those nations that don't presently set a high priority on trafficking in human beings.
  
  

United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime.
The Globalization of Crime... June 2010.

"A ground-breaking assessment of transnational organized crime activities that INTERPOL will use in its work."

... Ronald Noble, INTERPOL Secretary General.

Uploaded by jerm9023 on Nov 6, 2008.