Richer nations dominate human trafficking, says ILO report
ILO researchers say of the 1.39 million people they believe are being forced into the sex trade, 98% are females and a shocking 40-50% of those are children.
Commercial sexual exploitation involves about 10% of the worldwide figure for forced labour but it constitutes a hefty 46 and 55% respectively of all forced labour in transitional and industrial countries, says the report. It says 2.45 million people in forced labour at any given time are there because of human trafficking.
...2.45 million people in forced labour at any given time are there because of human trafficking The report provides no breakdown figures for Europe versus North America and Oceania but it singles out southeastern Europe as a hub for trafficking after the wars and steep economic decline of the post-Soviet era. It says west Europe is the destination for most women and children abducted or recruited by European criminal organisations but some have shown up as far away as Japan.
An Albanian girl forced into the trade at 17 explained the sophistication of the European rings to World Vision staff recently. "There was a network of pimps. We first went to the south of the country and walked through the mountains to Greece. Then we moved by train or cars through Italy, France, Germany, Sweden and finally Norway.”
...There was a network of pimps. We first went to the south of the country and walked through the mountains to Greece The girl was given a cover story by her handlers and was applying for refugee status in Norway when she turned herself in to authorities and was taken into protective custody. She has since testified against members of the ring that smuggled her.
Such girls and women can realise average annual profits of US$67,000 for their handlers in industrialised nations, says the ILO report. This is more than twice the profit from any other economic exploitation like agriculture, construction or domestic employment in the same industrialised countries.
In transition nations like Bosnia and Kosovo, where sex workers service international workers and peacekeeping forces, profits can be $23,500 annually. That is 10 times the profits from other kinds of forced work in those countries.
"Girls in poor Balkan countries like Albania and Moldavia are easy prey to traffickers,” said Nicholas Gummere, National Director of World Vision Albania.
“World Vision provides opportunities to (trafficked) girls if and when they are repatriated to Area Development Programme areas, but it\'s main work is to prevent this kind of victimisation from happening in the first place.
“World Vision Albania has begun a two-pronged advocacy campaign to help the most at-risk girls attend school and to define and prevent child abuse at home and in schools. We are empowering children to be active agents of change rather than passive victims,” Gummere explained.
...We are empowering children to be active agents of change rather than passive victims The bulk of forced labour, or 7.8 million people, involves debt bondage in southeast Asia, so-called “traditional” slavery in Africa and agriculture, begging, construction, petty crime and domestic work in nations all over the world.
“…forced labour is a truly global problem, affecting substantial numbers of people in both developed and developing countries and in all regions of the world,” the report said.
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