Writes Althea, Content Writer, Headline Diplomat eMagazine
Child trafficking affects every country in the world. Besides, children make up 27% of all human trafficking victims worldwide, and two out of every three identified child victims are girls. Additionally, children are very likely to be trafficked for labor instead of sex.
In most cases, children who are trafficked for labor might be removed from their families and forced to carry out domestic household services, or rather work in factories or agriculture. Despite millions of kids being trafficked, there is a huge number of children involved in child labor that is not considered trafficking.
Approximately, there are 168 million kid laborers around the globe, with around half of them engaging in what is referred to as “hazardous work,” work that threatens their physical, social, or emotional well-being. According to Save the Children, 66% of trafficked children are girls.
Time and again, girls worldwide are forced to drop out of school or denied access to income-generating opportunities. As a result, such social exclusion can pin down girls in a cycle of utmost poverty and also lead to increased vulnerability of exploitation and trafficking.
Human Trafficking Trends
After the pandemic hit the world, human trafficking cases increased and it also changed the way human traffickers conduct their business. Polaris conducted thorough research on human trafficking trends in 2020 and came up with lots of interesting analyses of data.
First and foremost, Polaris identified 16,658 victims of trafficking. Around 10,836 victims were trafficked for sex, 3,583 for labor, 631 for sex & labor, and the rest were 1,634. Those in situations of trafficking identified were about 10,583. Again, sex was the leading with approximately 7,648, followed by labor with 1,052.
One of the key findings of the Polaris report is that human trafficking is extremely adaptable. Polaris came to this conclusion after defining that as long as there are vulnerable communities and people, there will always be some sort of exploitation taking place.
When many countries shut down their borders, human traffickers also changed tactics as they started to recruit their victims online. According to the Polaris findings, online recruitment increased by around 22%. With lockdowns, common recruitment sites such as foster homes (-70%), strip clubs (46%), and schools (38%) were no longer the main target.
So, the internet replaced them as the top recruitment location. Most of the victims were targeted on Facebook and Instagram. There was a 125% increase in recruitment on Facebook and a 95% increase on Instagram over the previous year.
Human Trafficking Does Not Happen by Accident
Human trafficking is very personal. Therefore, this is not something that can be eradicated at once. And the main reason why human trafficking flourishes is because of misinformation. For instance, data shows that most child sex trafficking strategies and kidnapping victims normally know and trust their traffickers.
As a matter of fact, recruitment by relatives or intimate partners was highly reported for all types of trafficking. Even though this is what happens every year, the situation was worse in 2020. With regard to the Polaris report, around 4,142 trafficking victims were recruited by known relationships. Among these victims, 31% were recruited by a caregiver or family member. This is a huge increase compared to 2019, where only 21% were close relationships.
Sadly, recruitment by family members or intimate partners was more noticeable in sex trafficking cases. Out of the 2,448 victims trafficked for sex or sex/labor; 42% were introduced into trafficking by a relative, while 39% were recruited by an intimate partner or via a marriage proposition.
While out of the 1,572 victims trafficked for labor, around 69% were introduced into trafficking by a current or potential employer, 15% by a member of their own family, and 5% by an intimate partner or through a marriage proposition.
Even though family members and friends are some of the main recruiters of human trafficking victims, they are also the main access point for assistance for 40% of identified victims. This is the situation with all types of trafficking.
Last but not least, human trafficking does not happen by accident. According to the report, most people who end up being trafficked have a clear and identifiable vulnerability that traffickers use. For instance, children or victims of sex trafficking have vulnerabilities such as substance abuse, homelessness, mental health issues, unstable housing, relocation, or recent migration.
On the other hand, victims of labor trafficking have vulnerabilities such as unstable housing, substance use concern, economic hardship, criminal record, and relocation or recent migration.
Summary
Child trafficking statistics are horrendous as many children are suffering. Lack of misinformation is one of the main reasons why child and human trafficking cases are still on the rise. That’s why the best way to fight child trafficking is to create enough awareness and make it harder for traffickers to kidnap or coerce kids into trafficking.
Featured photo by Olya Kobruseva, Pexels
