What is Human Trafficking?

The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) defines human trafficking succinctly as "a crime in which victims are moved from poor environments to more affluent ones, with the profits flowing in the opposite direction.” In other words, human trafficking is slavery.

At its most basic, human trafficking involves the illegal smuggling of men, women and children against their will to places where they are forced to work for little or no pay, with few if any rights, and with few if any opportunities to complete their service and return home. According to Global Impact member charity International Rescue Committee (IRC), victims of trafficking are forced to work in "brothels, domestic service, agricultural fields, construction sites, hotels, factories, sweatshops and restaurants"—almost any place where inexpensive (or free) labor is desired.

Investigators believe that up to 80 percent of trafficking victims are female, and at least half are children under the age of 18 some as young as 2. Children are trafficked to become forced laborers, soldiers and drug smugglers. Many end up forced into pornography and prostitution. One study estimates that up to 2 million children per year are snared by the commercial sex trade alone.

Trafficking victims endure physical, psychological and sexual abuse. Their movement is severely restricted, and they have virtually no privacy. Their health and safety is constantly at risk, and unknown numbers die every year from abuse, neglect, murder and suicide.

Human trafficking may be a heinous business, but it is also a lucrative one. The United Nations identified human trafficking as the world's third-largest international criminal activity, after drugs and guns. Some estimates place the profits as high as $8 to $10 billion a year. And according to the UN, it is also the fastest-growing criminal enterprise. That it has survived and thrived is due to the fact that—until recently—it has existed in the shadows of organized crime, outside international law.

Fortunately, that is changing. Humanitarian aid organizations have been increasingly successful at turning the blinding lights of public and legal attention onto human trafficking. As a result, law enforcement organizations are able to learn more about the nature and extent of human trafficking, information they need in order to combat it successfully. And what they are finding out is truly frightening.

Why Does Human Trafficking Happen?

Financial desperation forces people to leave home in search of better jobs, driving a constant stream of migrants into the grip of the human trafficking machine. Poor education means that people are less likely to be able to identify exploiters. And the lack of birth registration in many countries makes it all but impossible to track people once they have been trafficked.

These three factors are prevalent in many of the poorest countries in Africa. Member charity Plan USA estimates, for example, that over 10 percent of the children in Togo, West Africa, have been trafficked for forced labor. Many Togolese families are forced by necessity to essentially give their sons or daughters away for the promise of lucrative jobs elsewhere...and then never see their children again.