Traffickers use force, fraud, or coercion to control victims for the purpose of forced labor or sexual services against their will.
Human trafficking is a form of modern-day slavery.
What is it?
The realities of human trafficking.
There are more people trapped in slavery today than at any other point in human history.
43% of human trafficking victims are in forced labor.
13% of human trafficking victims are being exploited in the commercial sex trade.
44% of human trafficking victims are in forced marriage.
Trafficking happens every day, in every country, including the United States.
It affects individuals of every age, ethnicity, gender, and socio-economic background.
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At any given time, there are an estimated
50 MILLION PEOPLE
50 MILLION PEOPLE
50 MILLION PEOPLE
50 MILLION PEOPLE
50 MILLION PEOPLE
50 MILLION PEOPLE
in modern slavery.
Human trafficking is a 150 billion dollar criminal industry.
Traffickers prey on the vulnerable for their own profit.
Extreme poverty and a lack of job opportunities are chief factors for most individuals who find themselves exploited.
Modern slaves by demographic
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Where does trafficking happen?
Trafficking occurs in every country in the world.
Many people think that human trafficking doesn’t happen in developed countries, like The United States. But it does. Polaris estimates that the total number of victims nationally reaches into the hundreds of thousands, and trafficking victims can be found in every state.
The Global Slavery Index estimates that over 1,000,000 victims of human trafficking reside in South America, as of 2018. Trafficking can be found in every country on the continent, and is particularly prevalent in Brazil, Venezuela, and Colombia.
Asia and the Pacific represents over 60% of the global estimates of human trafficking victims — that’s about 25 million individuals in that region alone.
Twenty-three percent of global human trafficking takes place in Africa. According to the 2018 Global Slavery Index, over 9.2 million people living in Africa are living in modern slavery.
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