WUNRN
UN REPORT SAYS HUMAN TRAFFICKING IN
118 COUNTRIES - MAJORITY OF VICTIMS ARE WOMEN
By Associated Press,
UNITED NATIONS — A new U.N. report paints a grim
picture of the millions of people trafficked for sexual exploitation and forced
labor: They come from at least 136 different nationalities, have been detected
in 118 countries, and the majority of victims are women though the number of
children is increasing.
The U.N.
Office of Drugs and Crime, which launched the report Tuesday at U.N.
headquarters, said the victims can be found in the world’s restaurants,
fisheries, brothels, farms and homes, among other places.
The report
said trafficking for sexual exploitation accounts for 58 percent of all
trafficking cases detected globally while the share of detected cases for
forced labor has doubled over the past four years to 36 percent.
In general,
it said traffickers are adult men and nationals of the country in which they
operate but more women and foreign nationals are involved than in most other
crimes.
“This global
crime generates billions of dollars in profits for the traffickers,” Yury
Fedotov, executive director of the Vienna-based agency known as the UNODC, said
in the preface.
The
International Labor Organization estimates that 20.9 million people are victims
of forced labor globally, a figure that includes victims of human trafficking
for labor and sexual exploitation, he said.
“While it is
not known how many of these victims were trafficked, the estimate implies that
currently, there are millions of trafficking in persons victims in the world,”
Fedotov said.
According to
the report, trafficking for sexual exploitation is more common in Europe,
Central Asia and the Americas while trafficking for forced labor is more
frequently found in Africa, the Middle East, south and east Asia and the
Pacific.
Women
account for 55-60 percent of all trafficking victims detected globally, and
women and girls together account for about 75 percent, it said.
One worrying
trend is the apparent increase in the trafficking of children, with the
percentage of detected victims increasing from 20 percent between 2003-2006 to
some 27 percent between 2007-2010, the report said.
Among the
child victims detected, it said, two of every three trafficked children were
girls.
The report
said detection of other forms of trafficking remain relatively rare.
Trafficking
for the removal of organs, though comprising just 0.2 percent of detected cases
in 2010, was reported by 16 countries in all regions surveyed, it said.
Trafficking
for other purposes including begging, forced marriage, illegal adoption,
participating in armed combat and committing crimes, accounted for 6 percent of
detected cases in 2010, including 1.5 percent of victims exploited for begging,
the report said.
The report
said progress has been made in fighting trafficking, with 134 countries and
territories passing laws making it a crime.
But the
UNODC said progress in getting convictions is limited.
Of the 132
countries covered in the report, it said 16 percent did not record a single
conviction for human trafficking between 2007 and 2010.
“Human
trafficking requires a forceful response founded on the assistance and
protection for victims, rigorous enforcement by the criminal justice system, a
sound migration policy and firm regulation of the labor markets,” said UNODC
chief Fedotov.
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The Global Report 2012 provides an
overview of patterns and flows of trafficking in persons at global, regional
and national levels, based on trafficking cases detected between 2007 and
2010 (or more recent). The report also includes a chapter on the worldwide
response to trafficking in persons. The Country Profiles of the Global Report
present a national level analysis for each of the 132 countries covered by
this edition of the report. Victims
are trafficked around the world for sexual exploitation, forced labour,
begging, petty crimes, removal of organs and for other exploitative purposes.
Trafficking in persons is a truly global phenomenon: between 2007 and 2010,
victims from at least 136 countries were detected in 118 countries worldwide.
Because of this diffusion as well as the hidden nature of trafficking crimes,
it is difficult to estimate the size of the problem. Many
countries have recently passed a legislation criminalizing trafficking in
persons as a specific offence. However, definitions of human trafficking
vary, as does the capacity to detect offenders and victims. Even though,
there is a general increase in the number of prosecutions and convictions
globally, the overall criminal justice response to trafficking in persons appears
to remain very weak. |
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REPORT Full report (PDF, 5 MB) COUNTRY
PROFILES
Africa and Middle East EXECUTIVE
SUMMARY
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