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Human Trafficking


The Victims of Trafficking and Violence Protection Act defines "severe forms of trafficking in persons" as:
  1. sex trafficking in which a commercial sex act is induced by force, fraud, or coercion, or in which the person induced to perform such an act has not attained 18 years of age; or,
  2. the recruitment, harboring, transportation, provision, or obtaining of a person for labor or services through the use of force, fraud, or coercion for the purpose of subjection to involuntary servitude, peonage, debt bondage, or slavery.1

Recent Statistics on Human Trafficking: 

Due to the hidden nature of trafficking activities, gathering statistics is a complex and difficult task. Given these complexities, the following statistics are the most accurate available, but may represent an incomplete view of trafficking on a global and national scale.

  • According to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, there "are as many as 27 million men, women and children" in forced labor, bonded labor, and forced prostitution around the world.2

  • A study published in 2005 reported that an estimated $32 billion in annual revenue was being generated from all trafficking activities. One-half of this profit was made in industrialized countries ($15.5 billion) and close to one-third in Asia ($9.7 billion).3

  • The United States is primarily a destination country. The main regions from which trafficking victims originate are reported to be the Commonwealth of Independent States, Asia, Latin America, and the Caribbean.4

  • The International Labor Organization estimates that 60 percent of forced child labor is in agriculture.5

  • According to the World Bank and the International Organization for Migration, the estimated number of international migrants is 215 million in 2010, up from 191 million in 2005. In 2010, international remittance exceeded $440 billion.6

  • In 2010, human trafficking cases world-wide resulted in 6,017 prosecutions and 3,619 convictions. The total number of identified trafficking victims was 33,113.7

United States Response to Trafficking

  • In 2007, the U.S. government spent approximately $23 million for domestic programs to increase anti-trafficking law enforcement efforts, identify and protect victims of trafficking, and raise awareness of trafficking to help prevent new incidents.8

  • Between January 2008 and June 2010, federally funded task forces opened 2,515 investigations into suspected incidents of human trafficking. About 8 in 10 of the suspected incidents were classified as sex trafficking and about 1 in 10 were labor trafficking incidents.9

  • Four-fifths (83 percent) of victims in confirmed sex trafficking incidents were identified as U.S. citizens, while 67 percent of labor trafficking victims were classified as undocumented aliens and 28 percent as qualified aliens.10

U.S. Government Trafficking-Related Links


References

  1. P.L. 106-386.
  2. U.S. Department of State, "Remarks on the Release of the 2011 Trafficking in Persons Report," (Washington, DC, June 27, 2011), http://www.state.gov/secretary/rm/2011/06/167156.htm (accessed on September 27, 2011).
  3. International Labor Office, "A Global Alliance Against Forced Labor," (Geneva, Switzerland, 2005), 55, http://www.ilo.org/wcmsp5/groups/public/---ed_norm/---declaration/documents/publication/wcms_081882.pdf(accessed September 27, 2011).
  4. United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, "Trafficking in Persons: Global Patterns," (New York: United Nations, 2006), 104, http://www.unodc.org/documents/human-trafficking/HT-globalpatterns-en.pdf (accessed October 4, 2011).
  5. Ibid.
  6. U.S. Department of State, "Trafficking in Persons Report: June 2011," (Washington, DC: GPO, 2011), 21, http://www.state.gov/documents/organization/164452.pdf (accessed September 30, 2011).
  7. Ibid., 26.
  8. Ibid., 30, 38.
  9. U.S. Department of State, "Trafficking in Persons Report: June 2008," 51.
  10. Bureau of Justice Statistics, "Characteristics of Suspected Human Trafficking Incidents, 2008-2010," (Washington, DC: U.S. Department of Justice, April 2011), 1, http://bjs.ojp.usdoj.gov/content/pub/pdf/cshti0810.pdf (accessed October 3, 2011).
  11. Ibid.