Definitions, Facts and Figures

What is Trafficking?

It is very difficult to know exactly how many people have been subjected to trafficking in Europe due to the secretive nature of the crime. However, it is clear that women and children are the main victims of this trade, and that trafficking is constantly increasing.

Trafficking in persons is defined by three elements –

  1. the movement of a person;
  2. with deception or coercion;
  3. into a situation of forced labour, servitude or slavery-like practice

For children, that is anyone up to the age of 18, the means of force is not needed for trafficking to have taken place, i.e. it is irrelevant whether the child has consented.

Trafficking in human beings is today a global business and the source of lucrative profits for the traffickers and crime syndicates. According to certain estimates, trafficking in human beings is the third largest illicit money-making venture in the world after drug dealing and the arms trade. According to the International Labour Organization (ILO), the total illicit profits produced in one year by trafficked labourers are estimated to be about US$32 billion.

UN Definition (Internationally accepted definition from Article 3, paragraph (a) of the Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punish Trafficking in Persons defines Trafficking in Persons)

The recruitment, transportation, transfer, harbouring or receipt of persons, by means of the threat or use of force or other forms of coercion, of abduction, of fraud, of deception, of the abuse of power or of a position of vulnerability or of the giving or receiving of payments or benefits to achieve the consent of a person having control over another person, for the purpose of exploitation. Exploitation shall include, at a minimum, the exploitation of the prostitution of others or other forms of sexual exploitation, forced labour or services, slavery or practices similar to slavery, servitude or the removal of organs.

The International Labour Organisation suggests 6 indicators of forced labour:

  1. threats or actual physical harm to the worker.
  2. restriction of movement and confinement to the workplace or to a limited area.
  3. debt bondage: where the worker works to pay off a debt or a loan, and is not paid for his or her services. The employer may provide food and accommodation at such inflated prices that the worker cannot escape the debt. 
  4. withholding of wages or excessive wage reductions, that violate previously made agreements.
  5. retention of passprts and identity documents, so that the worker cannot leave, or prover his/her identity and status.
  6. threat of denunciation to the authorities, where the worker is in an irregular immigration status.

Difference between trafficking and smuggling

  • Human trafficking and smuggling are often confused and sometimes incorrectly used interchangeably.  The two, however, are legally distinct issues and should be recognised as such. 
  • Human smuggling is the facilitation, transportation, attempted transportation or illegal entry of a person(s) across an international border, in violation of one or more countries laws, either clandestinely or through deception, such as the use of fraudulent documents.  Beyond the State, whose immigration laws have been broken, there is no victim in the traditional sense.  Often, human smuggling is conducted in order to obtain a financial or other material benefit for the smuggler, and a fee is usually paid to the smuggler either in advance or upon arrival of the person at the destination.  Human smuggling generally occurs with the consent of the person(s) being smuggled, who often pay large sums of money.  Once in the country of their final destination they will generally be left to their own devices.
  • Unlike smuggling, which is often a criminal commercial transaction between two willing parties to facilitate movement of a person, human trafficking involves force, threats and deception and specifically targets the trafficked person as an object of criminal exploitation for labour or services.  Thus, there is an identifiable victim who is subject to involuntary servitude, as the law does not recognise consent to being enslaved or exploited in slave-like conditions.  Human trafficking does not require an illegal border crossing, nor is it necessarily transnational, such as in cases of internal trafficking. 

Statistics (Source: Home Affairs Select Committee Report, The Trade in Human Beings, DATE)

  • Around 800 000 are trafficked per year world wide, 100,000 into and within the EU each year
  • At a conservative estimate, there are at least 5,000 trafficking victims in the UK [Home Affairs Com report 5-09]
  • About 8,000 women work in off-street prostitution in London alone, 80% of whom are foreign nationals
  • Over 1000 women trafficked into prostitution have been referred to the Poppy Project, London since March 2003
  • 200-300 victims of trafficking for domestic labour register with the relevant NGO each year
  • It is estimated 330 child victims will be trafficked into the UK each year
  • About 60% of suspected child victims in local authority care go missing and are not subsequently found
  • There is long-term government funding for 35 places for victims in safe accommodation
  • 92 people were convicted of sex trafficking and four for labour trafficking between 2004 and December 2008
  • There are only 100-300 prosecutions for trafficking across the EU each year
  • Each sex trafficker earns on average £500-£1000 per woman per week
  • The International Labor Organization (ILO) estimates that there are at least 12.3 million adults and children in forced labor, bonded labor, and commercial sexual servitude at any given time.
  • Of these victims, the ILO estimates that at least 1.39 million are victims of commercial sexual servitude, both transnational and within countries. According to the ILO, 56 percent of all forced labor victims are women and girls.
  • According to the ILO, globally there are at least 2.45 million people in forced labour as a result of trafficking.
  • It is very difficult to assess the real size of human trafficking because the crime takes place underground, and is often not identified or misidentified. However, a conservative estimate of the crime puts the number of victims at any one time at 2.5 million. We also know that it affects every region of the world and generates tens of billions of dollars in profits for criminals each year.