Question: What is trafficking? Is it slavery?
Answer: Human trafficking involves the movement of people through violence, deception or coercion for the purpose of forced labour, servitude or slavery-like practices.
It is slavery because traffickers use violence, threats, and other forms of coercion to force their victims to work against their will. This includes controlling their freedom of movement, where and when they will work and what pay, if any, they will receive.
Q: Where is trafficking found?
A: Trafficking is a global problem affecting every continent and most countries. It occurs within and across national borders and ranks as one of the most lucrative forms of international crime.
Q: How many people are trafficked?
A: It is impossible to know and statistics are difficult to obtain because trafficking is an underground activity. A US Government report published in 2003, estimates that at least 800,000-900,000 people worldwide are trafficked each year.
Hundreds of women and children are trafficked each year to the UK. Research carried out for the Home Office in 2000 estimates that in one year, between 142 and 1,420 women are trafficked into the country; the figure may be higher as the research was based solely on reported cases.
Q: Are only women trafficked?
A: No, men, women and children are all victims of trafficking; although the majority are women and children.
Q: Are people only trafficked for prostitution?
A: No. People are trafficked into a variety of situations. For example, West African children are recruited into a range of exploitative work and transported illegally throughout the region; Chinese and Vietnamese women are trafficked to some Pacific islands as sweatshop labour making goods for the US market; men are trafficked from Mexico and forced to work on farms in the US.
Q: Why are people trafficked? Is it a new problem? What causes it?
A: The trafficking in human beings is not new. But it is a rapidly growing problem. A number of factors have led to its expansion, such as the easy profits made from exploitation; growing deprivation and marginalisation of the poor; discrimination against women; restrictive migration laws; a lack of information about the realities and dangers of trafficking and insufficient penalties against traffickers.
Q: Are trafficking and smuggling the same?
A: No. Trafficking and smuggling are not the same. Human trafficking involves deceiving or coercing someone to move -- either within a country or abroad through legal or illegal channels -- for the purpose of exploiting him or her.
Smuggling is assisting someone for a fee to cross a border illegally.
(Anti-Slavery International)
