Between 2020 and 2023, the number of trafficking victims reported by Member States amounted to 202,478
The global number of victims of human trafficking increased again (25%), after declining during the Covid-19 pandemic, with women and girls remaining in the majority, indicated the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC).
The conclusions are from the “Global Report on Trafficking in Persons 2024”, released today by UNODC, which covers 156 countries from all regions and sub-regions of the world (95% of the world’s population), with data from the period 2020-2022 and other 2023 preliminaries provided by only 72 states.
The report points to a 25% increase in the number of trafficking victims detected globally in 2022, compared to pre-pandemic numbers in 2019. Between 2019 and 2022, the global number of victims of trafficking for forced labor increased by 47% .
In total, between 2020 and 2023, the number of trafficking victims reported by Member States amounted to 202,478.
“This trend can be attributed to the 31% increase in children detected compared to the period before the Covid-19 pandemic”, points out the report
Victims are trafficked globally through an increasing number of international routes, with African victims to the largest number of destinations.
In 2021, the majority of victims of human trafficking were women and girls (61%). Although the number of underage victims has increased since 2019, adults continue to be the most recorded age group, and adult women represent 39% of victims.
The majority of women and girls identified among the victims continue to be trafficked for sexual exploitation. However, female victims are also trafficked in large numbers for forced labor, particularly domestic work, and other types of exploitation, including forced marriages and criminality.
While previous editions of this report showed how child trafficking, especially in the context of forced labor, typically occurred in low-income countries, recent data shows that although child trafficking is still detected in these areas, there has been an increase in high-income countries.
This occurs mainly in the case of girls trafficked for sexual exploitation (60%).
“Trafficking of girls for sexual exploitation is experiencing an alarming increase in many regions of the world. The international community and national authorities must increase efforts to prevent this form of trafficking, to ensure victim-centered and informed investigations into the trauma, as well as personalized protection and assistance programs for girl victims,” UNODC urged.
The growing number of children along migratory routes may explain the growing number of trafficked boys. After the pandemic, more unaccompanied and separated children were registered at the borders of Europe and North America, regions where more children are victims of trafficking.
“In 2022, children represented 38% of victims detected globally. Girls (22% of total victims) were most typically trafficked for sexual exploitation and, to a lesser extent, for forced labor and other forms of exploitation, such as forced marriage. Boys ( 16%) were mainly trafficked for forced labor and other forms of exploitation, typically forced crime”, highlights the survey.
Since 2019, there has been an increase of approximately 31% in child victims, 38% among girls.
Already in the context of ongoing conflicts and climate-induced disasters, the risk of human trafficking is increasing as one of the direct consequences of global instability and climate change, resulting in forcibly displaced populations, the report concludes.
Taking a broader look at types of human trafficking, since 2019 forced labor has seen greater increases (per 100,000 population) than trafficking for sexual exploitation and other purposes.
“Trafficking for forced labor increased by 47% globally when compared to the period prior to the start of the Covid-19 pandemic”, according to the UNODC survey.
Although trafficking for forced labor is now more frequently detected than trafficking for sexual exploitation, far fewer traffickers are convicted of this crime.
In 2022, more than 70% of traffickers were convicted of trafficking for sexual exploitation and only 17% were convicted of trafficking for forced labor, in contrast to 42% of victims detected in 2022.
According to UNODC, most human trafficking is perpetrated by organized crime groups.
In 2022, men represented around 70% of those investigated, prosecuted and convicted of human trafficking and the number of people convicted globally was back to slightly below 2019 levels, but with an increase of around 36% in compared to 2020.
