b) Estimates and data on human trafficking

Estimates and data on human trafficking are complex and difficult to obtain. The poor identification of trafficking cases and victims is an obstacle to the collection of information needed to understand and combat this form of crime.

In this context, IOM is working with UNODC to establish the first set of international standards for data collection on human trafficking so that governments and organizations around the world can collect data consistent with international standards.

According to the UNODC’s Global Report on Trafficking in Persons 2020, page 14: “Estimating the global size of the human trafficking market in terms of illegal profits remains difficult, given the lack of a reliable estimate of the number of victims worldwide“. Profits generated from trafficking often escape financial scrutiny, through the use of cash, money laundering, and the use of cryptocurrencies.

Forced labor generates more than $150 billion in illegal profits per year, according to the ILO, with an estimated breakdown as follows:

99 billion USD comes from commercial sexual exploitation.
51 billion USD results from trafficking for economic exploitation including domestic work, agriculture and other economic activities.

Although difficult to calculate accurately, the illicit profits from trafficking are considerable. They provide the incentive for traffickers to exploit millions of women, men and children around the world to meet an ever-increasing demand for goods and services.

This highly lucrative crime is all the more attractive because impunity persists: according to Kevin Hyland, an expert in the fight against human trafficking, in 2019, for approximately 40 million victims, there were only 9,548 convictions worldwide, representing a 99.98% probability of impunity for traffickers.

According to UNODC data, human trafficking is a gendered crime where the majority of victims are women (46%) and girls (19%), although men (20%) and boys (15%) are also affected by trafficking.

Some forms of trafficking are particularly targeted at women or men:

commercial sexual exploitation, forced marriage and domestic servitude, which particularly target women and girls and make them more vulnerable to sexual violence and slavery.
Economic exploitation in agriculture, construction and mining, which mainly affects men and boys.

Because of their extreme vulnerability, children are particularly affected by this form of crime (34%), which has a profound impact on their development. Trafficked children are exploited in a variety of ways: labor exploitation, domestic work, sexual exploitation, military conscription, sports, illegal adoption, begging, and organ transplantation.

In situations of armed conflict, children are frequently targeted by traffickers who may abduct and forcibly recruit them. Factors such as poverty, abuse, separation from their families, and displacement can push children into the armed forces. The Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Rights of the Child on the Involvement of Children in Armed Conflict requires State Parties to take all feasible measures to ensure that members of their armed forces who have not attained the age of 18 years do not take a direct part in hostilities (Article 1), and that persons who have not attained the age of 18 years are not compulsorily recruited into their armed forces (Article 2).

As a result of the pandemic, children have been confined and their online presence has increased dramatically. Online sexual exploitation of children has increased in various forms: online seduction for sexual purposes, possession and dissemination of child pornography photos and videos, and online piloting of child sexual abuse on the Deep Web and the Dark Web. See the work of the 46th regular session of the United Nations Human Rights Council and the Report of the Special Rapporteur on the sale and sexual exploitation of children, including child prostitution, child pornography and other sexual abuse of children (A/HRC/46/31).

Analysis of human trafficking data to arrive at estimates of the extent, geography, forms of exploitation, and profile of victims must be done with caution. The recent IOM State of the World Migration Report highlights the fact that data can be:

Difficult to collect in view of the clandestine, diverse, often invisible nature of human trafficking
Collected in different ways by different actors, with varying standards, impacting estimates and comparisons
Manipulated to promote political objectives (especially when trafficking is linked to irregular migration)

It is also important to be careful about what the data covers, as it is often the figures for contemporary slavery that are presented, rather than human trafficking in particular. “Contemporary slavery” includes trafficking in persons as well asindividual forms of exploitation. If human trafficking is to be fought properly, we must use specific data and correct legal qualification.

See: Counter Trafficking Data Collaborative (CTDC): the world’s first primary data repository on human trafficking: a tool for sharing, de-identifying and anonymizing data. (See World Migration Report 2022 p. 262)

Seminars on Human Trafficking organized by Mr. Michel Veuthey, 5. “International Prosecution of Human Trafficking – Where do we stand?“February 16, 2021, Intervention by Mr. Kevin Hyland

IOM, World Migration Report 2022, Chap. 10, pp. 262-268

See ILO Report: General Survey of the core conventions on rights at work in the light of the ILO Declaration on Social Justice for a Fair Globalization, Report of the Committee of Experts on the Application of Conventions and Recommendations, 2012, CIT.101/III/1B, paragraph 272.

See IOM Report p. 263: “Data are also to be approached cautiously, as they can be manipulated to promote political goals, biased by focusing on quantitative aspects of trafficking to the detriment of qualitative ones, and/or distorted, for instance from the use of “modern slavery” in efforts to quantify exploitative practices that may involve or overlap with trafficking in persons.“