Human smuggling & trafficking

Human trafficking and smuggling thrives in circumstances where men, women and children feel they have neither possibilities for improved life opportunities at home nor legal channels through which to migrate. It is also closely related to both unethical labour migration. The trafficking of persons for forced labour, including sexual exploitation, has been growing rapidly and continues to be one of the foremost concerns in international migration. The International Labour Organisation (ILO) estimates that there are 12.3 million victims of forced labour in the world at any given time. Of those, some 2.4 million have been trafficked, the majority of whom are women and children. For the traffickers, human trafficking is one of the world's most highly lucrative activities, with profits estimated at anywhere from 10-32USD billion annually; for those trafficked, it is predominately a function of poverty. It is important that the response not be limited to post-factum criminal justice and enforcement systems, but rather with better labour migration policies and management so that those thinking of migrating have options other than falling into the hands of human traffickers.

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