Human Trafficking

Human trafficking is the mechanism or conduit that brings people into slavery. It is one process of enslavement, not a condition or result of that process, and it is a small part of slavery's global picture: There are approximately 2.5 million people in the world who are in slavery after being trafficked, which is a little under 10 percent of all slaves. Most people in slavery are sedentary; they have not been moved from one place to another. Only in industrialized countries and the Middle East have a significant proportion of slaves been trafficked: approximately 75 percent. In Asia, Latin America, and sub-Saharan Africa, trafficked victims constitute less than 20 percent of all slaves.

Nonetheless, trafficking is a global problem. It affects every continent and most countries. Africa is predominantly an origin region for victims of trafficking, and Asia is an origin and destination region. Central and southeastern Europe are predominantly an origin subregions, and their victims are often exploited in western Europe. Latin America and the Caribbean is an origin region, while North America is often a destination for victims trafficked out of Latin America and the Caribbean. Around 800,000 men, women, and children are trafficked each year across international borders into slavery, and human trafficking is now the third-largest source of income for organized crime, after drug smuggling and arms smuggling. Of these victims, around 80 percent are female and 50 percent are children. They enter a range of economic sectors but predominantly the sex industry, while a smaller number are subjected only to forced labor. Beyond the traffic from poorer to richer countries (the poorer global south to the richer global north), today's journey into slavery is made at several other levels: from poorer to richer districts within a country, and from poorer to richer countries within a region. For example, of the estimated 200,000 people who are trafficked into, within, or through India annually, only 10 percent of this figure is cross-border trafficking, while 90 percent is intrastate.