Human Trafficking

UNODC Launch Global Report on Trafficking in Persons

The fifth Global Report on Trafficking in Persons by the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), has been launched.

The report comes at a time when global suffering has vastly increased vulnerabilities to trafficking. Extreme poverty is expected to rise for the first time in decades, with the continuing COVID-19 crisis casting a long shadow over our societies and economies. With many millions more women, men and children in every part of the world out of school, out of work, without social support and facing diminished prospects, targeted action is urgently needed to stop crimes like trafficking in persons from adding to the pandemic’s toll.

In order to act, we need to understand better the factors that facilitate human trafficking. It is in this spirit that I present to you the Global Report on Trafficking in Persons 2020.

The report draws on data from 148 countries and explores issues of particular relevance in the current crisis, including the impact of socio-economic factors, drivers of child trafficking and trafficking for forced labour, and traffickers’ use of the internet.

Although found in every country and every region, trafficking in persons remains a hidden crime, with perpetrators operating in the dark corners of the internet and the underbelly of the global economy to entrap victims for sexual exploitation, forced labour, domestic servitude and other forms of exploitation.

The full report can be downloaded at UNODC