Global Report on Trafficking in Persons

Abstract

A knowledge crisis about a crime that shames us all First, over the past few years, the number of The term trafficking in persons can be mislead-ing: it places emphasis on the transaction aspects countries that have taken steps to implement the of a crime that is more accurately described as foremost international agreement in this area -enslavement. Exploitation of people, day after the UN Protocol against Trafficking in Persons day. For years on end. has doubled. Hearing this wake-up call, politicians as well as ordinary people ask me two sets of questions. First, they want to know how big the crime of human trafficking really is: how many victims are there? Who are the traffickers, what are their routes and their gains? What are the trends, namely is the problem getting ever more severe? Why and where? Second, people want to know what to do, indi-vidually and collectively. Why aren’t govern-ments and the United Nations, why aren’t we all, doing more? Some people are even willing to mobilize personal resources to fight this crime: but for whom and how? The first set of questions needs to be answered as a matter of priority. Only by understanding the depth, breadth and scope of the problem can we address the second issue, namely, how to counter it. So far we have not attained much knowledge and therefore initiatives have been inadequate and disjointed. Policy can be effec-tive if it is evidence-based, and so far the evi-dence has been scanty. This is an updated report to the UNDOC report in 2006.