Forms of Human Trafficking
Human Trafficking is also referred to as Modern Slavery.
Elements are:
- The Process: the recruitment, transportation, transfer, harbouring or receipt of persons;
- The control of persons by means of: threat or use of force, coercion, abduction, fraud, deception, abuse of power or vulnerability, or giving payments or benefits;
- The End: Exploitation, which includes (at a minimum) sexual exploitation, forced labour, forced marriage, domestic servitude, slavery-like practices
Victims often go willingly with their traffickers because they are being deceived about the nature and conditions of the work.
Trafficking is a global phenomenon and nearly every country is a source, transit or destination (or combination of these three) for trafficked persons.
Slavery
Slavery (Chattel Slavery) is the status or condition of a person over whom any or all of the powers attaching to the right of ownership are exercised.
Or, in its narrowest sense, the word “slave” refers to people who are treated as the property of another person, household, company, corporation or government.
Slaves are held against their will from the time of their capture, purchase, or birth, and are deprived of the right to leave, to refuse to work, or to receive compensation (such as wages) in return for their labour.
Forced Labour
Forced Labour is all work or service which is exacted from any person under the menace of any penalty, and for which the said person has not offered him/herself voluntarily.
It is defined in section 73.2(3) of the Criminal Code 1995 (Cth) as:
“the condition of a person who provides labour or services (other than sexual services) and who, because of the use of force or threats:
1. Is not free to cease providing labour or services; or
2. Is not free to leave the place or area where the person provides labour or services.”
Labour Trafficking
‘Trafficking for the purposes of labour exploitation’ and ‘labour trafficking’ tend to be used to refer to trafficking in humans which has the end purpose of involving persons in forced labour e.g., enslaved workers on fishing vessels, or enslavement of migrant domestic workers, or bonded labour in an agricultural setting, or labour in a sweatshop or restaurant.
Domestic Servitude
Domestic Servitude is a form of slavery which occurs in households, and in most cases effects women and children. Domestic workers are brought into a country or are transported within a country; many suffer abuse by their ’employer’ including sexual assault. Domestic workers have been trafficked into private homes as well as Embassies and Consulates. Visas often require that a domestic worker remains with the original employer or face deportation; this discourages a worker from reporting any abuse.
Forced Marriage
Forced marriage occurs where full and free consent by both parties to a marriage does not exist, often as the result of coercion or deceit.[1]
Servile Marriage
Servile marriage refers to situations in which a person is considered a chattel that can be sold, transferred or inherited into marriage.[2]
Sham Marriage
A fraudulent marriage is one where there is no intention on the part of one or both of the spouses to participate in a genuine relationship as husband and wife.[3]
Organ Trafficking
Trafficking in persons for the purpose of organ removal is a growing international problem and sits uneasily within the normal trafficking in persons framework. The global demand for transplantable organs continues to increase with the development of modern transplantation procedures and immunosuppressant drugs (Scheper-Hughes 2005). The organ most commonly procured illegally is the kidney, as it can be retrieved from living donors. As awareness of trafficking in persons for the purpose of organ removal (TPOR) has increased, so has the number of declarations by international bodies and domestic laws condemning and criminalising such acts. [4]
Supply Chain
Supply chain is the name given to the production process of a good from the collection of raw material through to the final product. Workers may be enslaved at any stage of the supply chain.
Exploitation
The term “exploitation” may carry two distinct meanings:
1. The act of utilizing something for any purpose. In this case, exploit is a synonym for use.
2. The act of utilizing something in an unjust or cruel manner. It includes forcing people into prostitution or other forms of sexual exploitation, forced labour or services, slavery or practices similar to slavery, servitude or the removal of organs.
For children, exploitation may also include forced prostitution, illicit international adoption, trafficking for early marriage, or recruitment as child soldiers, beggars, for sports (such as child camel jockeys or football players), or for religious cults.
Sexual Exploitation
Sexual Exploitation is the result of a situation where a participant is forced into sexual servitude.
The trafficking protocol intentionally does not define the phrase “exploitation of prostitution of others or other forms of sexual exploitation” because governments could not agree on a common meaning.
All delegates agreed that sexual servitude was trafficking. (Global Alliance Against Trafficking in Women www.gaatw.net viewed 21 January 2008)
Coercion
Coercion is the practice of compelling a person or manipulating them to behave in an involuntary way (whether through action or inaction) by use of threats, intimidation or some other form of pressure or force.
These are used as leverage, to force the victim to act in the desired way. Coercion may involve the actual infliction of physical pain/injury or psychological harm in order to enhance the credibility of a threat.
The threat of further harm may then lead to the cooperation or obedience of the person being coerced. Torture is one of the most extreme examples of coercion i.e. severe pain is inflicted on victims until they give interrogators the desired information.
The term is often associated with circumstances which involve the unethical use of threats or harm to achieve some objective. Coercion may also serve as a form of justification for a conclusion in a logical fallacy or non-logical argument.
Debt Bondage
Debt Bondage (Bonded Labour) is the status or condition that arises when a pledge of services is given as security for a debt, but the length and nature of such services are not limited and/or defined, and their value is not applied to the liquidation of the debt. The debtor may give his/her personal services or of those of a person under his/her control as security for the debt.
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Victims’ Voices Lead the Way
Global crises, conflicts, and the climate emergency are escalating trafficking risks. Displacement and socio-economic inequalities are impacting millions of people worldwide, leaving them vulnerable to exploitation by traffickers. Those who lack legal status, live in poverty, have limited access to education, healthcare, or decent work, face discrimination, violence, or abuse, or come from marginalized communities are often the primary targets of traffickers.
Globally, national responses, particularly in developing States, appear to be deteriorating. Detection rates fell by 11% in 2020 and convictions plummeted by 27%, illustrating a worldwide slowdown in the criminal justice response to trafficking. The COVID-19 pandemic also changed the characteristics of trafficking, pushing it further underground and potentially increasing the dangers to victims by making the crime less likely to come to the attention of the authorities. In fact, 41% of victims who manage to escape their ordeal reach out to the authorities on their own initiative – another clear sign that anti-trafficking responses are falling short.
In the context of trafficking in persons, leaving people behind means:
- failing to end the exploitation of trafficking victims,
- failing to support victim-survivors once they are free from their traffickers, and
- leaving identifiable groups vulnerable to traffickers.
The campaign for World Day Against Trafficking in Persons 2023 aims to raise awareness of disturbing developments and trends identified by the latest UNODC Global Report on Trafficking in Persons and calls on governments, law enforcement, public services, and civil society to assess and enhance their efforts to strengthen prevention, identify and support victims, and end impunity.
To #EndHumanTrafficking, we cannot allow this crime to be met with increasing indifference and impunity. We must strengthen resilience against exploitation and the underlying socio-economic and cultural issues that are conducive to trafficking. We must sensitize everyone to the topic of human trafficking and thus push attention towards those who can make a difference in terms of changing policy and national resource management to strengthen prevention measures, improve identification of victims, increase support of survivors and end impunity.
Why a Blue Heart?
The Blue Heart symbol represents solidarity with the victims and the cold-heartedness of those who buy and sell their fellow human beings.
How you can get involved
- Share, like and comment on the social media messages for the World Day #EndHumanTrafficking
- Donate to the United Nations Voluntary Trust Fund for Victims of Human Trafficking, which provides on-the-ground assistance and protection to victims of trafficking.
- Join the Blue Heart Community or see more ideas on how to support the campaign.
- Enter the Photo Challenge.
Sexual exploitation, forced labour, slavery…
Trafficking in persons is a serious crime and a grave violation of human rights. Every year, thousands of men, women and children fall into the hands of traffickers, in their own countries and abroad. Almost every country in the world is affected by trafficking, whether as a country of origin, transit or destination for victims. UNODC, as guardian of the United Nations Convention against Transnational Organized Crime (UNTOC) and the Protocols thereto, assists States in their efforts to implement the Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punish Trafficking in Persons (Trafficking in Persons Protocol).
The Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punish Trafficking in Persons defines Trafficking in Persons as 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 World Day against Trafficking in Persons was proclaimed by the United Nations General Assembly, in its resolution A/RES/68/192.
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