Human Trafficking Is A Form Of Modern-Day Slavery Where People Profit From The Control And Exploitation Of Others.

As defined under U.S. federal law, victims of human trafficking include children involved in the sex trade, adults age 18 or over who are coerced or deceived into commercial sex acts, and anyone forced into different forms of "labor or services," such as domestic workers held in a home, or farm-workers forced to labor against their will.

Because human trafficking is considered to be one of the fastest growing criminal industries, the U.S. government and academic researchers are currently working on an up-to-date estimate of the total number of trafficked persons in the United States annually. With 100,000 children estimated to be in the sex trade in the United States each year, it is clear that the total number of human trafficking victims in the U.S. reaches into the hundreds of thousands when estimates of both adults and minors and sex trafficking and labor trafficking are aggregated.

Info via the Polaris Project & United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime

Every country in the world is affected by human trafficking, as countries of origin, transit or destination - or even all three.
Trafficking often occurs from less developed countries to more developed countries.
Most trafficking is national or regional, but long-distance trafficking does occur.
Europe is the destination for victims from the widest range of destinations, while victims from Asia are trafficked to the widest range of destinations.
Sexual exploitation (e.g., sex trafficking) is by far the most commonly identified form of human trafficking. It is the most visible. Other forms of exploitation are under-reported.
A disproportionate number of women are involved in human trafficking both as victims and as culprits.
Most trafficking is carried out by people whose nationality is the same as that of their victim.
Most trafficked forced labor occurs in agriculture, construction, garments and textiles, catering and restaurants, domestic work, the provision of healthcare services, entertainment and the sex industry.

HUMAN TRAFFICKING STATISTICS

There are more slaves in the world today than at any other point in human history, with an estimated 27 million in bondage across the globe. Men, women, and children are being exploited for manual and sexual labor against their will.

- A21 Campaign

Child/Human Trafficking is one of the fastest growing crimes in the world. Child/ human trafficking is the world’s second largest criminal enterprise, after drugs.

– U.S. State Department

The global market of child trafficking at over $12 billion a year with over 1.2 million child victims.

– UNICEF

As many as 2.8 million children run away each year in the US. Within 48 hours of hitting the streets, one-third of these children are lured or recruited into the underground world of prostitution and pornography.

– The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children