Poverty, conflict and climate fuel spike in trafficking victims: UN report

This article is published in association with United Nations.

The number of victims of human trafficking detected globally is rising again after falling off during the COVID-19 pandemic, the UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) said in its latest report on the issue, covering 156 countries. 

The 2024 Global Report on Trafficking in Persons reveals a 25 per cent increase between 2022 and 2019, as more children are exploited and forced labour cases spike due to vulnerabilities brought on by poverty, conflict and the climate crisis.

“Criminals are increasingly trafficking people into forced labour, including to coerce them into running sophisticated online scams and cyberfraud, while women and girls face the risk of sexual exploitation and gender-based violence,” said UNODC Executive Director Ghada Waly.

“We need to step up criminal justice responses to hold those at the top of the criminal chain accountable, work across borders to rescue victims and ensure survivors receive the support they need,” she added.

Unaccompanied children at risk

The number of victims detected for trafficking for forced labour worldwide surged by 47 per cent between 2019 and 2022, according to the report.  

The number of child victims increased 31 per cent in 2022 compared to 2019, with a 38 per cent rise recorded for girls. 

More boy victims have been detected in areas where increasing numbers of unaccompanied and separated children had been recorded, the report said.

Child trafficking is also on the rise in high-income countries, often involving girls trafficked for sexual exploitation.

ILO

Natalia, a mother of two children from Belarus, became a victim of human traffickers.

Victims mainly women

The study found that women and girls continue to account for the majority of victims detected worldwide, or 61 per cent.  Most girls, 60 per cent, continue to be trafficked for the purpose of sexual exploitation. 

Regarding boys, some 45 per cent are trafficked for forced labour and another 47 per cent are exploited for other purposes, including forced criminality and begging. 

Meanwhile, trafficking for forced criminality – which includes online scams – ranks third in the number of victims detected, jumping from one per cent of total victims detected in 2016 to eight per cent in 2022. 

Special focus on Africa

The report features a special chapter on Africa, a region UNODC said has often been neglected in trafficking studies due to the difficulties in obtaining data.  

The agency made extensive efforts to gather data from all regions of the continent, including through help from its field offices and joint initiatives with the UN migration agency IOM, the African Union Institute for Statistics (STATAFRIC), the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), the Southern African Development Community (SADC) and various national authorities.  

The report detected that African victims account for the highest number of destinations reached. At least 162 different nationalities were trafficked to 128 different destination countries in 2022. Of the cross-border flows detected, 31 per cent involved citizens of African countries. 

Most African victims are trafficked within the continent, where displacement, insecurity and climate change are making vulnerabilities worse. 

UNODC warned that children are more frequently detected than adult trafficking in most parts of Africa, particularly for forced labour, sexual exploitation and forced begging. 

The agency noted that a contributing factor to the global rise in child victims is the overall increase of the number of cases detected in sub-Saharan Africa.