Some numbers:
27 million - # of modern day slaves around the world
800,000 - # persons
trafficked across international borders each year (UNIFEM estimate 500,000 - 2
million, other NGOs estimate up to 4 million)
Worldwide 20% - victims are children. In some parts of Africa and the Mekong region, children are the majority (up to 100% in parts of West Africa).
Majority are women - 66% (UNODC) - 83% (IOM) - tracking different specific victims data
79% of trafficking victims are for sexual exploitation
US$7-12 billion - estimated annual trafficking business worldwide
$50 Million: US Government budget for efforts against human trafficking
Countries of Origin: 127, main ones are: Central and South-Eastern Europe, the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) and Asia, followed by West Africa, Latin America and the Caribbean.
Countries of Destination: 137, main ones are: Western
Europe, Asia and North America (17,500:
Number of foreign
nationals who are trafficked into the U.S. every year).
Legislation:
The United Nations Protocol against Trafficking in Persons - the foremost international agreement in this area - entered into force in 2003.
· As of November 2008, 63% of the 155 countries and territories that provided information for the UNODC Trafficking report had passed laws against trafficking in persons addressing the major forms of trafficking1.
· Another 16% had passed anti-trafficking laws that cover only certain elements of the Protocol definition.
· In 2003, only one third of the countries covered by this report had legislation against human trafficking; at the end of 2008, four-fifths did. The number of countries having anti-trafficking legislation more than doubled between 2003 and 2008 in response to the passage of the Protocol.
· In addition, 54% of responding countries have established a special anti-human trafficking police unit, and more than half have developed a national action plan to deal with this issue.
Offenders:
Surprisingly, 30% of the countries which provided information on the gender of traffickers, women make up the largest proportion of traffickers (eg. Latvia, 53% women criminals in Trafficking vs. 9% in other crimes). Even though there are still very few convictions and relatively light sentences (eg. in relation to smuggling of drugs).
Trafficking Flows:
Intra-regional and domestic trafficking are the major forms of trafficking in persons, though most of these cases go unreported due to restrictive definitions of trafficking or the greater visibility of foreign victims. In most of the reported cases, victims were moved across international borders (but not necessary far away).
However, most remarkably, victims from East Asia were detected in more than 20 countries in regions throughout the world, including Europe, the Americas, the Middle East, Central Asia and Africa. Other long distance flows include the trafficking of victims from Africa and Latin America to Europe and North America; the trafficking of Central European, Eastern European and Central Asian victims to Europe and the Middle East; and the trafficking of South Asian victims to the Middle East.
What we can do:
1. reduce the vulnerability of victims (care & repatriation, education, initiatives to address poverty)
2. increase the risks to traffickers (legislation, convictions, harsher punishments)
3. lower demand for the goods and services of modern-day slaves (prosecuting users, education)
Useful websites/information sources:
UNODC - United Nations Office of Drugs and Crime - The only U.N. entity focusing on the criminal justice element of Trafficking. http://www.unodc.org/unodc/en/human-trafficking/index.html
UN Global Report on Trafficking in Persons - February 2008:http://www.unodc.org/unodc/en/human-trafficking/global-report-on-trafficking-in-persons.html
UNODC - Toolkit to Combat Trafficking in Persons:http://www.unodc.org/unodc/en/human-trafficking/electronic-toolkit-to-combat-trafficking-in-persons---index.html
The overarching goals of this Toolkit are those of the Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punish Trafficking in Persons, Especially Women and Children, supplementing the United Nations Convention against Transnational Organized Crime.
UNIFEM is the women's fund at the United Nations. Established in 1976, it provides financial and technical assistance to innovative approaches aimed at fostering women's empowerment and gender equality. UNIFEM's facts & figures on Violence against Women: http://www.unifem.org/gender_issues/violence_against_women/facts_figures.php
www.iom.iht : An intergovernmental organization established in 1951, International Organization of Migration (IOM) is committed to the principle that humane and orderly migration benefits migrants and society.
IOM's World Migration Report 2008 - chapter on Trafficking:http://www.iom.int/jahia/webdav/site/myjahiasite/shared/shared/mainsite/published_docs/studies_and_reports/WMR2008/Ch8_WMR08.pdf
The US government' State Department created the Office to Monitor and combat Trafficking of Persons. This office has written a report on "Action to Modern Day Slavery" which outlines the facts, problems and concerns. http://www.state.gov/g/tip/
http://kristof.blogs.nytimes.com/tag/sex-trafficking/: Nicholas Donabet Kristof is an American journalist, author, op-ed columnist, and a winner of two Pulitzer Prizes. He has written an op-ed column for The New York Times since November 2001 and is widely known for bringing to light human rights abuses in Asia and Africa, such as sex trafficking, human trafficking and the Darfur genocide.
http://www.humantrafficking.org: The purpose of this Web site is to bring Government and NGOs in the East Asia and Pacific together to cooperate and learn from each other's experiences in their efforts to combat human trafficking. This Web site has country-specific information such as national laws and action plans and contact information on useful governmental agencies. It also has a description of NGO activities in different countries and their contact information.
Trafficking Information and Referral Hotline
Toll-free: 1-888-373-7888
Run by the Covenant House, sponsored by HHS in collaboration with the
Department of Justice, to allow victims of trafficking to be instantly referred
to a pre-screened aid organization in the victim's area.
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