Secretariat - Office of the Special Representative and Co-ordinator for Combating Trafficking in Human Beings

The facts

In 2005, the International Labour Organization (ILO) estimated that, at any given time between 1995 and 2004, some 12.2 million people were involved in forced labour, including sexual exploitation. In 2012, having applied a more advanced methodology, the ILO revised its estimate upward to between 19.5 million and 22.3 million people, and it recognized victims of forced labour as victims of human trafficking (ILO Global Estimate of Forced Labour, 2012). The 2012 UN Global Report on Trafficking in Persons reflects similar trends in the evolution of trafficking in human beings.

The victims

• An estimated 5.5 million children are victims of forced labour (ILO).
• Of all identified victims, individuals under the age of 18 comprise 21 per cent of victims of sexual exploitation, 27 per cent of victims of labour exploitation, and 33 per cent of victims of state-imposed exploitation (ILO).
• According to the 2012 UN Global Report on Trafficking in Persons, 27 per cent of  trafficking victims throughout the world are children, while regional figures differ greatly (16 per cent of detected victims in Europe and Central Asia, 68 per cent in Africa and the Middle East, 27 per cent in the Americas, and 39 per cent in South Asia and the Pacific).
• 98 per cent of victims of sexual exploitation in the private sector are women and girls (ILO). The UN Global Report also indicated an increase of trafficked girls under the age of 18 in 2007-2010 (up to 20 per cent of all victims).
• 40 per cent of the victims of labour exploitation in the private sector are female, while 60 per cent are male.
• In the area of state-imposed forced labour, 42 per cent are male, and 58 per cent are female.
• Of the total number of people in situations involving forced labour, 68 per cent are victims of labour exploitation, 22 per cent are victims of sexual exploitation, and 10 per cent are victims of state-imposed forced labour (ILO).
• Females comprise 55 per cent of trafficking victims for all forms of exploitation.
• 44 per cent of victims of forced labour/trafficking in human beings moved either internally or internationally, while the majority (56 per cent) were subjected to forced labour in their place of origin.
• Other forms of trafficking reported by the UN include trafficking for the removal of organs (0.2 per cent of the total number of detected cases) and trafficking for forced begging (1.5 per cent) (2012 UN Global Report). 

The traffickers

• According to the 2012 UN Global Report, men comprise 79 per cent of traffickers in Africa and the Middle East, 77 per cent in Western and Central Europe, 58 per cent in the Americas, and 23 per cent in Eastern Europe and Central Asia.

Prosecutions

• According to the 2012 US Trafficking in Persons Report, a total of 7,206 trafficking prosecutions were recorded globally in 2011.