Facts & Figures
What is Trafficking?
The United Nations office on drugs and crime (UNODC) defines Trafficking in Persons as the recruitment, transportation, transfer, harboring or receipt of persons, by means of the threat or use of force or other forms of coercion, of abduction, of fraud, of deception, of the abuse of power or of a position of vulnerability or of the giving or receiving of payments or benefits to achieve the consent of a person having control over another person, for the purpose of exploitation. Exploitation shall include, at a minimum, the exploitation of the prostitution of others or other forms of sexual exploitation, forced labor or services, slavery or practices similar to debt bondage and domestic servitude, child soldiers, and the removal of organs.
What constitutes trafficking?
There are three core elements of trafficking: Act, Means, and Purpose. These three elements constitute movement or recruitment by deception or coercion for the purpose of exploitation.
What is a Red Light District?
A red-light district is a part of an urban area where a concentration of prostitution and sex-oriented businesses, such as brothels, sex shops, strip clubs, adult theaters, etc. are found. The term originates from the red lights that were used in the 1800’s and still used in some areas, such as Amsterdam, Paris, Las Vegas, Tijuana, and Pattaya, as signs of brothels. Areas in many cities around the world, both urban and rural such as Wan Chai, Tokyo, Rio de Janeiro, and Calcutta have acquired international reputations as red-light districts.
Modern slavery statistics vary significantly from organization to organization, because of the difficulty of collecting data, due largely to the illegal underground nature of the exploitation and to the many instances where slavery goes unreported. There is also the temptation to sensationalize statistics in order to exact a response from the public in relation to these crimes.
As an organization, Free Rain International, determine to provide legitimate and consistent information within our training to give a true and accurate picture of the scale of this global atrocity, not only to lend validity and integrity to our own organization but also to show respect for those who have experienced slavery and those who are still entrapped.
For the purpose of this training our statistics are sourced from the Global Estimate of Modern Slavery report, released in 2017. The report is a collaborative effort between the International Labor Organization (ILO) and the Walk Free Foundation, in partnership with the International Organization of Migration (IOM). The alarming figures stated in this report are a wake up call to the global community, which, through the adoption of the 2030 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), has committed to the target of ending modern slavery and human trafficking by the year 2030.
A combined methodology was used to compile the report, involving predominantly the use of 54 specifically designed surveys, interviews with more than 71,000 respondents across 48 countries and data collected from global databases of assisted victims of trafficking. Data on cases of forced labor and forced marriage that took place between 2012 and 2016, was analyzed and processed and represents the experiences of a total of nearly 89 million people over this time. Due to limitation of collection of data, the following estimates are considered to be conservative.
*Sourced from UN, UNICEF, and TIP Report
Statistics
GLOBAL TRAFFICKING
An estimated 40.3 million people were victims of modern slavery in 2016.
That is, at any given day in 2016 more than 40 million men, women and children were being forced to work against their will or were living in situations of forced marriage.
In the four years between 2012 and 2016, 89 million people experienced some form of modern slavery for periods of time ranging from a few days to the whole four years.
Children in commercial sexual exploitation represented 21%, (1 million), of the total victims involved in forced sexual exploitation.
37% (5.7 million), of those forced to marry were children, (under the age of 18 at time of marriage). Among child victims, 44% were forced to marry before the age of 15 years.
One in four (25%), victims of modern slavery were children.
Women and girls represent 99% of victims in the commercial sex industry and 58% in other sectors of forced labor. They make up 84% of victims in forced marriage.
Women and girls accounted for a huge 28.7 million of the 40.3 million estimate, 71% of the overall total.
15.4 million were living in a forced marriage situation to which they had not consented. (Data collection is limited in this area in certain regions, particularly the Arab States).
Of these 40.3 million victims:
24.9 million people were in forced labor. (see above for what areas this covers).
Of the 24.9 million people in forced labor, 16 million were in the private economy, 4.8 million in forced sexual exploitation and 4.1 million were in state imposed forced labor.
The average age of a girl being forced into the US domestic sex slavery market is 13.
*Sourced from the UN, UNICEF, A21, and ILO.
STATISTICS BY REGION
Modern Slavery occurs in every region of the world. Developed and developing nations exploit people, most commonly individuals from their own communities.
*Sourced from U.S. State Department
The Asia Pacific region had the highest share of victims across all forms of slavery. Accounting for 71% of victims of forced sexual exploitation. Port cities like Pattaya, Bangkok, Manila, and Tokyo are hubs for trafficking throughout East Asia.
*Sourced from Free Rain, ILO, UN, UNICEF, and TIP Report
Africa is lush with the world’s most valuable resources like diamonds, gold, cobalt, titanium, platinum, and uranium. Because of the demand for these elements, traffickers will use any means necessary to mine. They are known to exploit their own people to harvest these precious minerals.
*Sourced from UNICEF, TIP Report, and ILO
STATISTICS IN THE U.S.
Due to their international airports and easy access from neighboring country borders, here are the top ten U.S. states for trafficking.
California 6. Ohio
Georgia 7 .Illinois
Missouri 8. Florida
Mississippi 9. New York
Texas 10. Michigan
*Sourced from TIP Report
PROFIT
With estimated annual global profits of $150 billion, trafficking is the fastest growing criminal enterprise in the world.
In 1850, the average price for an enslaved person in the American South was equivalent to $40,000 in today’s economy. Today, a typical price for a child to be sold by a trafficker to a brothel is $72.
Here are the current low, middle, and high costs for forced prostitution through out the world.
*Sourced from Free Rain, ILO, Forbes, and Love 146
