There was a 25 per cent increase in the number of human trafficking victims detected globally in 2022 compared to 2019 pre-pandemic figures, according to a report by the United Nations Office on Drug and Crime (UNODC).
The ‘Global Report on Trafficking in Person 2024’ on Wednesday revealed that child trafficking, trafficking for forced labour and forced criminality are rising as poverty, conflict and climate leave more people vulnerable to exploitation.
Between 2019 and 2022, the global number of victims detected for trafficking for forced labour surged by 47pc, the report said.
Trafficking flows from South Asia also appeared to have a global dimension, as South Asian victims were detected in 36 countries in a wide variety of different regions, including Europe, where they have been increasingly detected over the past few years, the Middle East, where numbers have decreased as well as Sub-Saharan Africa, the Americas and East Asia and the Pacific.
The global number of detected child victims increased 31pc in 2022 compared to 2019, with a 38pc rise recorded for girls.
More boy victims have been detected in areas where increasing numbers of unaccompanied and separated children had been recorded.
Child trafficking was also on the rise in high-income countries, often involving girls trafficked for sexual exploitation.
The report found that women and girls continue to account for the majority of victims detected worldwide (61pc in 2022).
The majority of girl victims (60pc) detected continued to be trafficked for the purpose of sexual exploitation.
Some 45pc of detected boys were trafficked for forced labour and another 47pc were exploited for other purposes, including forced criminality and begging.
Trafficking for forced criminality, including into online scams, ranks third in the number of victims detected and went from accounting for 1pc of total victims detected in 2016 to 8pc in 2022.
According to the report, the detected African victims accounted for the highest number of destinations reached.
In total, at least 162 different nationalities were trafficked to 128 different countries of destination in 2022. Of the cross-border flows detected, 31pc involve citizens of African countries.
Most African victims were trafficked within the continent, where displacement, insecurity and climate change are exacerbating vulnerabilities.
Children were more frequently detected than adult trafficking in most parts of the continent, particularly for forced labour, sexual exploitation and forced begging.
A contributing factor to the global rise in child victims detected was the overall increase in the number of cases detected in Sub-Saharan Africa.
The report pointed out the resurgence of sexual exploitation and emerging sophisticated forms of forced criminality.
In 2022, the number of victims detected in sexual exploitation increased 41pc compared to 2020, returning above the levels recorded in 2019 after a relevant decrease during the pandemic.
Female victims are typically more targeted for this form of trafficking, with more than 90pc of the total victims detected trafficked for sexual exploitation being women (64pc) or girls (28pc).
In 2022, men accounted for about 70pc of those investigated, prosecuted and convicted of trafficking in persons globally. Women accounted for more than a quarter.
Children were rarely reported as offenders. Few children were investigated and prosecuted, and fewer were convicted.
The 2024 edition of the Global Report covered 156 countries from all regions and sub-regions of the world, the best country coverage by the UNODC Global Report on Trafficking in Persons since its first edition in 2009.
