This is the type of trafficking that gets the most attention and that is best known to the public. "79% of all global trafficking is for sexual exploitation." (UNODC: Global Report on Human Trafficking in persons 2009). 

Trafficking for sexual exploitation involves the use of violence, deception or coercion to force an individual into prostitution.  It almost exclusively affects women and girls.

Trafficking for sexual exploitation can also occur alongside debt bondage, as women and girls are forced to continue in prostitution through the use of unlawful “debt” purportedly incurred through their transportation or recruitment, which exploiters insist they must pay off before they can be free.

Trafficking for Sexual Exploitation in the UK

Home Office research into organised crime markets estimated that at any one time in 2003 there were up to 4,000 victims of trafficking for sexual exploitation in the UK.