Counter-Trafficking

Trafficking in human beings is a serious violation of human rights that exploits men, women and children.

Although the global scale of human trafficking is difficult to quantify, as many as 800,000 people may be trafficked across international borders annually, with many more trafficked within the borders of their own countries.

According to the UN Trafficking Protocol, trafficking in persons is:

“the recruitment, transportation, transfer, harbouring or receipt of persons, by means of threat, use of force or other means of coercion, of abduction, of fraud, of deception, of the abuse of power or of a position of vulnerability or of the receiving or giving of payment… to a person having control over another person, for the purpose of exploitation.”

(Article 3 of the UN Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punish Trafficking in Persons, Especially Women and Children, Supplementing the UN Convention Against Transnational Organized Crime)

Organized criminal groups earn billions of dollars in profits from trafficking and thereby exploiting people, and run a low risk of detection and conviction.

Through being trafficked, victims experience severe abuse and endure fundamental human rights violations. Common forms of exploitation include rape, torture, debt bondage, unlawful confinement, and threats against victims’ families or other persons close to them as well as other forms of physical, sexual and psychological violence.

The demand for cheap labour, sexual services and certain criminal activities are among the root causes of trafficking. Poverty and limited opportunities and resources, as well as a lack of social power are among other contributing factors.

In many parts of the world, restrictive immigration policies reduce the possibility for legal migration while the demand for foreign labour remains constant. This, together with the aforementioned root causes, may force potential migrants to turn to criminal networks. As a consequence, new trafficking routes are constantly being established and a market for fraudulent travel documents, clandestine transportation and covert border crossing has developed worldwide.