UNODC Global Report

The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) Global Report on Trafficking in Persons 2020 is now available. The report presents a global picture of the patterns and flows of trafficking as well as detailed regional analyses and country profiles. Covering 148 countries the report is based primarily on trafficking cases detected between 2016 and 2019. Some key finding of the report include:

• for every 10 victims detected globally in 2018, about five were adult women and two were girls
• the number of children detected increased to over 30 per cent
• in low-income countries, children make up half of the victims detected and are mainly trafficked for forced labour
• 50 per cent of detected victims were trafficked for sexual exploitation, 38 per cent for forced labour, 6 per cent were subjected to forced criminal activity and more than one per cent to begging. Smaller numbers were trafficked for forced marriages, organ
  removals and other purposes
• Dozens of court case summaries analysed by UNODC revealed women and girls were sold to their future exploiter for less than 5,000 USD with intermediaries receiving less than 2,000 USD. Victims of trafficking within national borders were sold for as little as 250 USD. There are examples where victims were sold for up to 25,000 USD each in countries where they were going to be exploited.
• traffickers have kept pace with technology, becoming adept at using the internet for their trafficking operations.  The internet helps traffickers to operate in multiple locations simultaneously while physically exploiting the victims in just one location.
• the general deterioration of economic conditions resulting from the COVID-19 pandemic will likely increase the numbers of people at risk of being targeted by traffickers
• Data collected revealed 534 different trafficking flows with more than 120 countries reported they detected victims from more than 140 different countries of origin

The over-representation of women and girls as both victims and perpetrators has been a consistent theme to emerge from the UNODC’s Global Trafficking in Persons Reports, says Flinders University criminology PhD candidate and member of ACRATH Alexandra Baxter, who contributed an Australian case study to the latest report.

For more information download a copy of the Global Report on Trafficking in Persons 2020 here.