September 7, 2023

Trafficking in human beings

All age groups

https://worldcouncilforhealth.org

https://worldcouncilforhealth.substack.com/p/human-trafficking

Sexual exploitation (66% of global revenue)

Labour / servitude

Organ removal

Exponentially growing worldwide, internet,

trafficking of children for online commercial sexual exploitation,

videos and photos,

torture and rape of children,

including toddlers

Methods

Deception

Kidnapping

Coercion and/or force

Violence and torture

Forced to watch abuse of children

Forced injection with drugs

US Department of Homeland Security

https://www.dhs.gov/topics/human-trafficking

Human trafficking is the fastest growing criminal industry in the world.

Annual revenue of US$150 billion (2014)

Second largest criminal enterprise after drugs

Particularly vulnerable

Poverty

Abusive family environment

Displacement during violent conflict

Living under corruption

International (UN) Labour Organization (2022)

https://news.un.org/en/story/2022/09/1126421

50 million humans

One in every 150 people in the world

Over 12 million are children

Sexual exploitation

6.3 million people in situations of forced commercial sexual exploitation on any given day, (2021)

This number includes 1.7 million children in commercial sexual exploitation, (ILO 2022)

https://www.americanbar.org/groups/crsj/publications/human_rights_magazine_home/human_rights_vol37_2010/spring2010/sex_trafficking_and_hiv_aids_a_deadly_junction_for_women_and_girls/

Some survivors report having been forced to engage in sexual intercourse with up to fifty perpetrators in a single day

Children trafficked for sex tourism serve about 1,500 customers per year,

more than half of those children are under the age of 12

https://www.missingkids.org/home

Internet abuse, 2019

Nearly 70 million child sexual abuse files (videos/pictures),

https://protectchildren.ca/en/about-us/

78% of child abuse files involved children under the age of 12,

63% showed children under 8

At any given time, there are 750,000 to over 1 million predators online searching for these files

Forced labour and servitude

https://www.europarl.europa.eu/RegData/etudes/BRIE/2020/659360/EPRS_BRI(2020)659360_EN.pdf

Over 20 million people

Hazardous conditions, mines, fields, factories, homes, construction sites.

Carry heavy loads, exposed to pesticides and other toxins

Work excessive hours, severe weather conditions.

Denigrating treatment, constant risk of violent abuse.

Tens of thousands become ill and die.

https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2021/feb/12/mars-nestle-and-hershey-to-face-landmark-child-slavery-lawsuit-in-us
Organ and blood harvesting

Numbers uncertain

Reports of it are increasing across the world

Medical and ritual purposes

2017, Daesh (ISIS)

https://www.dni.gov/files/NCTC/documents/jcat/firstresponderstoolbox/First-Responders-Toolbox---International-Partnerships-Among-Public-Health-Private-Sector-and-Law.pdf

Organs from oppressed minorities and prisoners

Governments and organised crime networks

Human Trafficking in the U.S. and Europe

Trafficking for sexual exploitation most common type

https://www.unov.org/unov/en/unodc.html

72% of detected survivors in North America

“with the market forces of prostitution driving demand for human trafficking of women and girls“

https://nij.ojp.gov

“Studies find that up to 80% of samples of women and girls serving as prostitutes had been coerced or forced to engage in prostitution by pimps or traffickers.“

United States

“accounts for nearly 50% of all IP addresses engaging in P2P file sharing of child pornography images“

The New York Times (2019)

“ The images are horrific. Children, some just 3 or 4 years old, being sexually abused and in some cases tortured.

Some followed by travel to Latin America and the Caribbean.

Europe

The majority of trafficking victims, Bulgaria, Romania, Moldowa, Ukraine, Nigeria

Brought to Central and Western Europe for exploitation.

A CALL FOR TARGETED ACTION

We call for decisive, targeted measures to end human trafficking. These include but are not limited to the following:

Public Awareness

Legislation

Law Enforcement

Survivors

Culture