Fact sheets  Trafficking in human beings      (Acrobat files)

Links   United Nations - Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC)

Estimates have placed human trafficking and illicit migration as a USD 28 billion enterprise, steadily catching up with drug and arms trafficking. Trafficking in human beings (THB) is a crime that amounts to modern slavery and is a complex issue, requiring a multitude of strategies at a range of levels to reduce the problem.

THB takes many forms, five of which are briefly covered below.

Trafficking in women for sexual exploitation

This is a multi-billion-dollar business which involves citizens of most countries and helps sustain organized crime. A violation of human rights, trafficking in women destroys the lives of its victims.

Human trafficking is distinct from people smuggling in that it involves the exploitation of the migrant, often for purposes of forced labour and prostitution.

People smuggling

People smuggling implies the procurement, for financial or material gain, of the illegal entry into a state of which that person is neither a citizen nor a permanent resident. Criminal networks which smuggle and traffic in human beings for financial gain increasingly control the flow of migrants across borders.

Child sexual exploitation

Exploitation of children on the Internet ranges from posed photos to visual recordings of brutal sexual crimes. One of INTERPOL’s main tools for helping police fight this type of crime is the International Child Sexual Exploitation Image database (ICSE DB). Containing hundreds of thousands of images of child sexual abuse submitted by member countries, the ICSE DB facilitates the sharing of images and information thereby assisting law enforcement agencies with the identification of new victims.

Trafficking for forced labour/servitude

Victims of this equally widespread form of trafficking come primarily from developing countries. They are recruited and trafficked using deception and coercion and find themselves held in conditions of slavery in a variety of jobs.

Men, women and children are engaged in agricultural and construction work, domestic servitude and other labour-intensive jobs.

Trafficking in organs

Trafficking in human beings for the purpose of using their organs, in particular kidneys is a rapidly growing field of criminal activity. In many countries waiting lists for transplants are very long, and criminals have seized this opportunity to exploit the desperation of patients and potential donors.

Victims are often misinformed about the medical aspects of the organ removal and deceived about the sums they will receive. Their health, even life, is at risk as operations may be carried out in clandestine conditions with no medical follow-up.

A framework for action

INTERPOL actively seeks to increase and improve international law enforcement co-operation in order to help combat this global crime.

The United Nations Convention against Transnational Organized Crime, and the additional Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punish Trafficking in Persons are key platforms in disrupting and dismantling THB, giving guidelines for law enforcement action.

The protocol urges an increase in the information exchange between states in order to determine:

• whether individuals crossing or attempting to cross an international border with travel documents belonging to other persons or without travel documents are perpetrators or victims of trafficking in persons;
• the types of travel document that individuals have used or attempted to use to cross an international border for the purpose of trafficking in persons;
• the means and methods used by organized criminal groups for the purpose of trafficking in persons, including the recruitment and transportation of victims, routes and links between and among individuals and groups engaged in such trafficking, and possible means for detecting them.