Human Trafficking

Human trafficking is among the world's fastest growing criminal enterprises and is an estimated $150 billion-a-year global industry. It is a form of modern day slavery that profits from the exploitation of our most vulnerable populations. It involves controlling a person or group through force, fraud, or coercion to exploit the victims for forced labor, sexual exploitation, or both. Human trafficking strips victims of their freedom and violates our nation's promise that every person in the United States is guaranteed basic human rights. It is also a crime.

UNODC Report on Human Trafficking Exposes Modern Form of Slavery

According to the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) report, the most common form of human trafficking (79%) is sexual exploitation. The victims of sexual exploitation are predominantly women and girls. Surprisingly, in 30% of the countries which provided information on the gender of traffickers, women make up the largest proportion of traffickers. In some parts of the world, women trafficking women is the norm. The second most common form of human trafficking is forced labour (18%), although this may be a misrepresentation because forced labour is less frequently detected and reported than trafficking for sexual exploitation. Worldwide, almost 20% of all trafficking victims are children. However, in some parts of Africa and the Mekong region, children are the majority (up to 100% in parts of West Africa). [Source: UNODC]

Est17

Thousand Victims Trafficking into the U.S. p/yr

In recent years, transnational criminal organizations and affiliated domestic gangs have expanded from drug and firearm trafficking to the trafficking of human beings. The U.S. Department of State estimates that 14,500 to 17,500 victims are trafficked into the United States each year. This figure does not include victims who are trafficked within the country each year. California - a populous border state with a significant immigrant population and the world's ninth largest economy - is one of the nation's top four destination states for trafficking human beings. [Source: Attorney General, CA]

1/3

Human Trafficking

Children make up almost 1/3 of all human trafficking victims worldwide [Source: UNICEF]

40.3

Million People

At any given time in 2016, an estimated 40.3 million people are in modern slavery, including 24.9 million in forced labour and 15.4 million in forced marriage. Out of the 24.9 million people trapped in forced labour, 16 million people are exploited in the private sector such as domestic work, construction or agriculture; 4.8 million persons in forced sexual exploitation, and 4 million persons in forced labour imposed by state authorities. Women and girls are disproportionately affected by forced labour, accounting for 99% of victims in the commercial sex industry, and 58% in other sectors. [Source: ILO]

11 FACTS ABOUT HUMAN TRAFFICKING

Human trafficking is a crime that forcefully exploits women, men, and children. According to the United Nations, human trafficking affects every country in the world, but it’s not talked about enough. So we’re talking about it. [Source: DoSomething.org]

Trafficking involves transporting someone into a situation of exploitation. This can include forced labor, marriage, prostitution, and organ removal. This kind of exploitation is known by a few different names -- “human trafficking,” “trafficking of persons,” and “modern slavery” are the ones accepted by the US Department of State. [1]

It’s estimated that internationally there are between 20 million and 40 million people in modern slavery today. Assessing the full scope of human trafficking is difficult because so cases so often go undetected, something the United Nations refers to as “the hidden figure of crime.”[2]

Estimates suggest that, internationally, only about .04% survivors of human trafficking cases are identified, meaning that the vast majority of cases of human trafficking go undetected. [3]

Human trafficking earns global profits of roughly $150 billion a year for traffickers, $99 billion of which comes from commercial sexual exploitation.[4]

Globally, an estimated 71% of enslaved people are women and girls, while men and boys account for 29%.[5]

Estimates suggest that about 50,000 people are trafficked into the US each year, most often from Mexico and the Philippines. [6]

In 2018, over half (51.6%) of the criminal human trafficking cases active in the US were sex trafficking cases involving only children.[7]

Reports indicate that a large number of child sex trafficking survivors in the US were at one time in the foster care system. [8]

Advocates report a growing trend of traffickers using online social media platforms to recruit and advertise targets of human trafficking.[9]

The average age a teen enters the sex trade in the US is 12 to 14 years old. Many victims are runaway girls who were sexually abused as children.[10]

In 2018, The National Human Trafficking Hotline received more calls from California than any other state in the US, followed by Texas and Florida, respectively. (To contact the Human Trafficking Hotline: call 1-888-373-7888, text 233733, or chat online.) [11]