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U.S. & International

Ark of Hope for Children has compiled the following U.S. and international statistics on human trafficking, child trafficking and sex trafficking. These trafficking stats were sought so we could research the needs of rescued child trafficking victims. These became our keys towards our plan for the Harbourage safe homes for child trafficking survivors . Statistics are updated bi-yearly and sources are at the end.

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* "When a child has been recruited, transported, harbored, or received and some commercial element is introduced in the production of child pornography, then that individual has also engaged in child trafficking. Whether they work in strip clubs or sweatshops, these boys and girls are victims of human trafficking." * The Trafficking Victims Protection Act (TVPA) defines "severe forms of trafficking in persons" as: sex trafficking in which a commercial sex act is induced by force, fraud, or coercion, or in which the person induced to perform such an act has not attained 18 years of age." * "The economic reality is that human trafficking is driven by profits. If nobody paid for sex, sex trafficking would not exist."
Where do trafficked children come from?

Child trafficking victims, whether for labor, sex or organ trafficking, come from all backgrounds, include both boys and girls. They span a wide age range from 1 to 18 years old. Sex trafficking victims up to roughly 25 years old most often started as young as 14. Children are trafficked out of, or into the United States from all regions of the world and represent a variety of different races, ethnic groups and religions. They may be brought to the U.S. legally or smuggled in.

Trafficked children can be lured to the U.S. through the promise of school or work and promised the opportunity to send money back to their families. Children are also vulnerable to kidnappers, pimps, and professional brokers. Some children are even sold to traffickers by their families, who may or may not have an understanding of what will happen to the child. U.S. born children are also trafficked within the U.S., coming from any racial group, socio-economic background, and come from or trafficked within both city and rural areas.

The numbers;

Update: In 2012 the (UNODC) United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime reports the percentage of child victims had risen in a 3 year span from 20 per cent to 27 per cent. Of every three child victims, two are girls and one is a boy.

Gender and age profile of victims detected globally: 59% Women - 14% Men - 17% Girls and 10% were Boys.

600,000 to 800,000 women, children and men bought and sold across international borders every year and exploited for forced labor or commercial sex (U.S. Government)

When internal trafficking victims are added to the estimates, the number of victims annually is in the range of 2 to 4 million

50% of those victims are estimated to be children

It is estimated that 76 percent of transactions for sex with underage girls start on the Internet

2 million children are subjected to prostitution in the global commercial sex trade (UNICEF)

There are 20.9 Million victims of Trafficking World wide as of 2012

1.5 Million victims in the United States

The impact;

Human trafficking has surpassed the illegal sale of arms

Trafficking will surpass the illegal sale of drugs in the next few years

Drugs are used once and they are gone. Victims of child trafficking can be used and abused over and over

A $32 billion-a-year industry, human trafficking is on the rise and is in all 50 states (U.S. Government)

4.5 Million of trafficked persons are sexually exploited

Up to 300,000 Americans under 18 are lured into the commercial sex trade every year

From 14,500 - 17,500 of those victims are trafficked into the United States each year

According to non-governmental U.S. sources;

Average victims age is 11 to 14

Approx 80% are women and children bought, sold and imprisoned in the underground sex service industry

Average life span of a victim is reported to be 7 years (found dead from attack, abuse, HIV and other STD's, malnutrition, overdose or suicide)

The largest group of at-risk children are runaway, thrown away, or homeless American children who use survival sex to acquire food, shelter, clothing, and other things needed to survive on America's streets. According to the National Runaway Switchboard 1.3 million runaway and homeless youth live on America's streets every day. [5,000 die each year] It would not be surprising to learn that the number of children trafficked in the United States is actually much higher than 300,000.

Children are often targeted by traffickers as they are deemed easier to manipulate than adults. More money can be earned by younger girls and boys exploited in sexual exploitation, especially virgins. Pre-pubescent girls are reported to be injected with hormones to bring on puberty. Younger girls are expected to have a greater earning potential, and as such are in greater demand.

Physical and Mental Consequences of Trafficking for victims;

Child victims of human trafficking face significant problems. Often physically and sexually abused, they have distinctive medical and psychological needs that must be addressed before advancing in the formative years of adulthood.

Child victims of exploitation can face a number of long-term health problems:

Sleeping and eating disorders

Sexually transmitted diseases

HIV/AIDS, pelvic pain, rectal trauma and urinary difficulties from working in the sex industry

Drug addiction

Chronic back, hearing, cardiovascular or respiratory problems from endless days toiling in dangerous agriculture, sweatshop or construction conditions

Fear and anxiety

Depression, mood changes

Guilt and shame

Cultural shock from finding themselves in a strange country

Posttraumatic Stress Disorder

Traumatic bonding with the trafficker

Click to read about Ark of Hope's planned Harbourage Safe Homes for Child Trafficking Victims
Pull factors;

Demand for cheap labor and for prostituted women, girls, and boys is the primary "pull" factor. Common push and pull factors exploited by traffickers include:

Unemployment and perceived job opportunities overseas (into the U.S.)

Unhappy home situation: The victim may be in an abusive situation, their family may be in debt, or there may be an addict in the family

Relatives and friends live in the destination country

Returning migrants, legal and illegal, say they have made a better living for themselves

Sex buyers are far more complicit in the victimization of sex trafficking victims. Sex tourism and child pornography have become worldwide industries, facilitated by technologies such as the Internet, which vastly expand the choices available to pedophiles and permit instant and nearly undetectable transactions.

Trafficking Victims:

Child trafficking victims, like other child victims, come from many backgrounds and include both boys and girls across a wide range of ages.

Children are trafficked to the U.S. from all regions of the world and represent a variety of different races, ethnic groups and religions.

They may be brought to the U.S. legally or smuggled in.

Internationally trafficked children, especially adolescents, may be lured overseas to the U.S. through the promise of work or school and the opportunity to send money back to their families.

Children are also vulnerable to kidnappers, pimps, and professional brokers.

Some children are sold to traffickers by their families, who may or may not have an understanding of what will happen to the child.

U.S. citizen children may also be trafficked within the U.S., and come from multiple racial groups and socio-economic backgrounds.

Runaways:

Many youth, especially U.S. citizen children trafficked within the U.S., run away from problems at home and may be exploited as a result of emotional vulnerability, homelessness and the need to survive. Youth who run away from home and engage in "survival sex" often find themselves vulnerable to pimps and traffickers involved in prostitution networks. Approximately 55% of street girls, and a good percentage of boys, engage in formal prostitution and some think it is much higher than that. This means that a child client who has been homeless or living on the street for any amount of time has a great likelihood of having been sexually exploited or trafficked.

The sexual exploitation of children is not limited to particular racial, ethnic or socioeconomic groups, although children from poor families appear to be at somewhat higher risk of commercial sexual exploitation. In fact, most of the street children encountered in the study were Caucasian youths who had run away from middle-class families. One clear theme is the is proportionate number of street youth who have histories of recurrent physical or sexual abuse at home and took to the streets in a desperate effort to bring their abuse to an end.

According to these researchers, child sexual exploitation in the United States affects as many boys as girls, but boys are less well-served by social service and law enforcement systems because of the widespread belief that boys are better able than girls to fend for themselves. Without intervention, research has shown many boys shift from being victims of sexual abuse to victimizing other boys and girls as pimps and traffickers.

People are recruited in several different ways such as through fake employment agencies, acquaintances, newspaper ads, front businesses, word of mouth or abduction. Traffickers may be neighbors, friends, returnees, agricultural operators, owners of small businesses, diplomats and even families. Increasingly, however, the traffickers are organized crime syndicates, often in collaboration with corrupt law enforcement entities, government officials or employers, who may use several intermediaries from the first point of contact to the final destination of the victim. If the victim is transported, they use both legal and illegal means of transport and various techniques to keep their victim enslaved.

They may keep them under lock and key or in isolation from the public and from their family members or support networks, confiscate their passports or identification documents, use the threat of violence against the enslaved person or their families, threaten them with shame, fear of imprisonment or deportation, and control their money.

The psychological effects of torture are helplessness, shame and humiliation, shock, denial and disbelief, disorientation and confusion, and anxiety disorders including post traumatic stress disorder, phobias, panic attacks and depression. Victims may experience Traumatic Bonding (Stockholm Syndrome) - a form of coercive control in which the perpetrator instills in the victim fear as well as gratitude for being allowed to live or for any other perceived favors, however small.

Ark of Hope for Children's sources for U.S. and international trafficking statistics;
2012 UNITED NATIONS OFFICE ON DRUGS AND CRIME Global Report - Vienna U.S. Trafficking In Persons Report Trafficking Victims Protection Act U.S. Trafficking In Persons Report Child Trafficking Update Defender Foundation FBI on Human Sex Trafficking - March 2011 Child Exploitation and Online Protection Centre, Hanoi Child Victims of Human Trafficking Report- Dept Health & Human Services Crimes Against Children Report- Interpol - September 2009 - October 2011 - June 2011 - June 2012
Trafficking in Human Beings Report- Interpol - December 2009

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What are the statistics on human trafficking of children?

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Ark of Hope for Children has compiled the following U.S. and international statistics on human trafficking, child trafficking and sex trafficking. These trafficking stats were sought so we could research the needs of rescued child trafficking victims. These became our keys towards our plan for the Harbourage safe homes for child trafficking survivors .

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The commercial sexual exploitation of children (CSEC) is another term for what we often call child sex trafficking. While anyone can be a victim, we know that kids who are homeless or runaways, LGBTQ, African American or Latino, and youth interacting with the child welfare system are more vulnerable to this type of exploitation. We've highlighted specific vulnerabilities below, but we know that they are not mutually exclusive categories. To wrap our heads around who is affected by this crime, we dissect complicated experiences into isolated ones and create a series of valuable data points to direct our work.

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Child Sex Trafficking Statistics | Thorn

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The commercial sexual exploitation of children (CSEC) is another term for what we often call child sex trafficking. While anyone can be a victim, we know that kids who are homeless or runaways, LGBTQ, African American or Latino, and youth interacting with the child welfare system are more vulnerable to this type of exploitation.

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The Internet may have just become a safer place for vulnerable kids, with the arrest yesterday of Carl Ferrer, the chief executive of Backpage.com. California authorities charged him with multiple counts of pimping, defined as soliciting customers for prostitutes, or profiting off of them. Charged also with pimping minors, Mr. Ferrer faces almost 22 years in prison if convicted. Arrest warrants were also issued for two founders of Backpage.com, the leading marketplace for escort ads. All three face felony conspiracy to commit pimping charges. The company's Dallas offices were also raided.

Ferrer is not accused of running a brothel or sending a few prostitutes out to earn him money. His alleged reach is larger, and more sinister. According to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, his company was responsible for 2,900 instances of suspected child sex trafficking since 2012 in California alone.

"Raking in millions of dollars from the trafficking and exploitation of vulnerable victims is outrageous, despicable and illegal," California Attorney General Kamala Harris said. Her office has been investigating the website for three years, and Texas officials were also involved. "Backpage and its executives purposefully and unlawfully designed Backpage to be the world's top online brothel."

A 15-year-old interviewed in the case, who had been pimped out at age 13, told investigators that Backpage.com had posted her advertisements. "I mean really, coming from someone my age, there is too much access, like it's too easy for people to get on it and post an ad," she said.

Those are the kind of vulnerable kids we at Covenant House see at our shelters, where, according to our studies with two universities, almost a quarter of the young people interviewed have been commercially sexually exploited - homeless kids, those from the foster care system, those who, because their families couldn't or wouldn't take care of them, are vulnerable to pimps who offer them love and security.

But in the next few months, Backpage's reach may be severely shortened. After the Supreme Court refused to hear Backpage's attempt to block a Senate subpoena, Ferrer and his company have until Monday to produce files on how it monitors ads, or they could face monetary fines and/or imprisonment. And Backpage is trying to defend its policies in several courtrooms around the country, facing the teenagers it helped exploit. At issue is the company's claim that it is protected by the Communications Decency Act, even though that legislation was created to keep children safe online.

We know that stopping Backpage's escort ads will not stop the sexual exploitation of young people online. We know there are countless other sites, some run by Backpage, that would gladly jump on the profits to be made from the commercialized rape of children.

But we are overjoyed that the real possibilities of arrest and felony charges now await those who prey in such a sick way on the most vulnerable kids in our society.

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The Internet may have just become a safer place for vulnerable kids, with the arrest yesterday of Carl Ferrer, the chief executive of Backpage.com. California authorities charged him with multiple counts of pimping, defined as soliciting customers for prostitutes, or profiting off of them.

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Authorities in Reno are finding it ​increasingly difficult to identify victims and perpetrators ​ of sex trafficking.

Jae C. Hong / AP

While the women Holland works with are generally between the ages of 18 and 24, studies suggest that sex-trafficking victims are getting younger. Hard statistics are hard to come by on an industry whose main players are experts at evading authorities, but the general consensus among experts is that children, overwhelmingly girls, now enter the world of sex trafficking between 12 and 14, younger by several years in just the last decade ( The Washington Post has noted that several of the reports and organizations that use this age range cite a 2001 report that the paper suggests is dubious and outdated. The paper points to a separate study that suggests 15 may be the average age of entry, but there is no conclusive evidence). Most come from poor, dysfunctional families, and many are recruited out of the foster system or shelters by men who promise love and stability. "A lot of young girls respond to that," Ranasinghe says. "It's quasi-romantic, quasi-parental."

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Sarah (not her real name) knows exactly how men lure in young girls and women. The now-29-year-old grew up as part of a happy, middle-class family in Reno, but her parents divorced when she was 18, and the former swimmer turned to heroin and meth to dull the pain. She bounced from the San Francisco Bay Area to San Diego, working part-time jobs to pay for the habit, before eventually landing back in Reno. "Things are just different here," she says during a conversation in the Awaken sitting room. She occasionally gazes out the window toward a pair of strip clubs in the distance where she still spots girls who are trapped. "You don't have to put up a face," she adds, referring to the fact that there was no need to hide her drug usage.

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In Sex Trafficking, 'Kids Are Renewable Resources'

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Authorities in Reno are finding it ​increasingly difficult to identify victims and perpetrators ​ of sex trafficking. While the women Holland works with are generally between the ages of 18 and 24, studies suggest that sex-trafficking victims are getting younger.

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There are fewer crimes in society that trigger greater public outrage than sex trafficking of children. Trafficking is a serious problem in the United States, yet many of the stereotypes surrounding the issue and the counter-productive approaches to fixing the problem, make it increasingly difficult to address the real dilemmas and oppression of those children in need of help.

At present, the commercial sexual exploitation of children has become a staple of often scary tabloid and other media coverage. The sensationalist sex trafficking narrative commonly depicted in mass media by celebrities and activists doesn't always reveal the full story of this complex and misunderstood phenomenon, which is often buffeted by data and themes that detract from potential remedies. Here are 10 child sex trafficking statistics that you most likely didn't read....
1. Boys make up 50 percent of the sex trafficked victims in the U.S
The modern response to commercial sexual exploitation of minors has been driven by a centralized view of the victim: predominantly a girl, rescued by law enforcement, who doesn't engage in self-help. This more popular 'sex trafficking narrative' has tended to focus on the plight of women and young girls, while young boys have been essentially left out in research, policy and practice. Yet, studies show that boys are as equally affected by sex trafficking as girls and along with transgendered youth are considered a high-risk, hidden population.

According to a 2008 John Jay College study in New York, Commercial Sexual Exploitation of Children in New York', as high as 50 percent of commercial sexually exploited children in the United States were boys alone. These findings coincide with a more recently released study, "And Boys Too" by End Child Prostitution, Child Pornography and the Trafficking of Children for Sexual Purpose which discovered that boys make up almost half of the victims. Of the 40 informants contacted in the ECPAT study, 18 said they would serve boys.
2. Most children who are sex trafficked don't have a traditional 'pimp'
While most of us are familiar with the conventional pimp portrayed in the media who preys upon and kidnaps children off the streets, in reality, this is not typically how children enter 'the life' of prostitution.

In fact, the study revealed that most children are not 'pimped' in the traditional sense but instead recruited by familial procurers or friends known to them who do not manage their work but rather facilitate them by offering shelter or referring them to buyers in exchange for clients or a share of their earnings. Licensed independent clinical social worker Steven Procopio explained these exchanges to AlterNet:

"Children can have pimps, but generally as the boy [or girl] ages out into his/[her] late 20s, he/[she] may rent an apartment with several others in the life and in exchange for those younger kids having shelter and a room to sleep, they work for the older boy/[girl]. Another scenario is the fee-for-service drive-by-pimp - a guy will drive his car, ask a child if he wants to make some money for the evening, pimp him/her out and then at the end of the night the child may never see that person again. In other situations, families may pimp out their kids to support their drug addiction," he said.
3. Many youth show a surprising amount of agency and control over their work
Perhaps most difficult to reconcile in the minds of human rights activists intent on "rescuing" under-age sex workers is the fact that many of these kids don't believe they need saving and consciously make the decision to work in the sex trade.

Anthony Marcus, Associate Professor of Anthropology at John Jay College, and part of the ground-level research team for the New York and a subsequent Atlanta study found that many youth who engage in commercial sex do not view themselves as sufferers, but rather perceive their 'work' as a curious and fascinating lifestyle:

"By definition, a sex trafficking victim is a person suffering extreme distress in a relationship that is exploitive. However, one of the surprising things we found about the street sex market is that young women have a surprising amount of agency. We encountered so many young women who had expired their pimps who were brutal or bullying them," he told AlterNet.
4. For most exploited children, their trafficking situation is not the greatest trauma they've endured - the majority has a history of sexual abuse and neglect
While most youth entered 'the life' of prostitution between the ages of 11-14, their sexual exploitive situation began usually between the ages of 6-10 and documented as a child abuse case, according to Tina Frundt, sex trafficking survivor and founder of anti-trafficking non-profit Courtney's House.

What's more, between 70-90 percent of commercially sexually exploited children in the United States have been sexually abused prior to entering 'the life' and are runaways with a history of complex trauma that usually begins with a dysfunctional or neglectful family, as Procopio explains:

"These kids enter the system for various types of reasons. But the underlying reasons are that they come from homes where they are subject to multiple traumas in their childhood, sexual abuse, substance abuse or domestic violence. In other scenarios, the youth is asked to leave because of gender identification," he said.

Moreover, 30 percent of children who are trafficked reported sexual abuse by someone in their family and 14 percent disclosed sexual abuse by both someone within and outside of their family, a Williamson & Prior 2009 study revealed.
5. Trafficked children are treated as criminals despite federal law classifying anyone under 18 years of age a victim
Despite statutory rape laws in every state explicitly stating that children under 18 cannot legally consent to having sex, (in conformity with the federal Victims of Trafficking and Violence Protection Act of 2000) most states still allow minors to be arrested and charged with prostitution crimes.

Kate Mogulescu, attorney at Legal Aid Society who has represented hundreds of indigent clients aged under 21 facing criminal prosecution for prostitution, outlined her frustrations with the system at a recent seminar on "The Sexual Exploitation and Sexual Trafficking on Minors" in New York:

"Our criminal justice is deeply flawed. There is a fundamental perverseness about it because you have to be arrested and charged for prostitution first even if you are under 18. It has always been 'the state versus the trafficking victim, who is considered a defendant and that just doesn't go away. 16 and 17 year olds are prosecuted as adults even though technically the law regards them as victims," she said.

Moreover, the U.S Department of Justice found that law enforcement officers are more likely to arrest underage boys engaged in commercial sex rather than refer them to social service providers, as they do with girls.
6. Women make up buyers and traffickers as well
According to the John Jay study, most trafficked children predominantly serve white males between 25 and 55 years old, with a preference for older, wealthy white males. However, 40 percent of boys and 11 percent of the girls surveyed said that they had served a female client, with 13 percent of the boys exclusively serving female clients.

Moreover, in family controlled trafficking situations, the trafficker can often be a child's mother or grandma, who tells the youth, "we all make money together, we're in this household and you have to contribute", according to Tina Frundt.

This is consistent with other reports, which tend to suggest that women make up 35-40 percent of traffickers, as Cameron Conway highlights in his article, 'Human Trafficking - The Other 20%'.

"I've heard from several high-ranking women in anti-trafficking organizations, that the sex traffickers, the actual criminals in the crime, are about 65% men. Such a statistic has a hard time taking root because there's already the perceived and ingrained idea that men and men-only are the criminals", he wrote.
7. Online websites such as backpage.com can be a sex trafficker's haven
Backpage.com, is a major enabler of online child trafficking through its adult section advertisements. Last year, U.S. Senators called for backpage.com to ease facilitation of sex trafficking, which they argued prioritized the rights of pimps and not kids.

Nonetheless, the website continues to cop flack due to the incessant number of cases popping up whereby pimps use the site to arrange "sex encounters" with trafficked clients. Last year, three teens sued the website alleging that the site allowed them to be forced into prostitution.

Tina Frundt, who works alongside FBI investigators in locating online predators, says such websites are a feeding ground for traffickers: "The traffickers are online all over backpage and it's like kiddy porn but most providers are unfamiliar with the lingo and code words used by pimps and buyers so we're missing it," she said.
8. Criminalizing commercial sex work and branding 'trafficking' as the same thing raises the stakes for victims
In the United States, any person under the age of 18 whether a girl or boy with any assistance from a third party, is by definition a 'trafficked victim', whether they consent or initiate contact on their own accord.

According to Professor Marcus, attempting to criminalize all commercial sex work and/or conflate the term with "trafficking" actually aggravates the situation for children who are commercially sexually exploited. A better solution, he says, is to normalize sex work:

"This notion of 'child sex trafficking' has a dependency to make the stakes so high that people have trouble talking about their experiences. Most young people we met wouldn't go to social service agencies to get help because social services records were tied to child sex trafficking and no one wants their 'support network' such as your girlfriend or boyfriend prosecuted. For children being controlled by predators who are selling their body for money, the only way people find out about it is by getting information from those in the market. The solution is not increasing punishment or more policing or stricter penalties. There is no bridge in the law between 16-17 years olds who are doing it by choice and the kidnapped child who is held captive. This only makes it harder to find out who is coerced because everybody is afraid of the police." he said.
9. Most kids engaged in sex trafficking don't consider themselves victims:
According to the Polaris Project, an organization against human trafficking, children who are sex trafficked generally do not self-identify as victims of a crime and thus do not immediately seek help due to a number of factors such as lack of trust, self-blame and the habitual instructions by the trafficker coaxing the child on how to behave around law enforcement. In addition, traffickers chronically condition the child to believe that he/she is engaging in sex work out of true love to pay off a debt - "you would do this if you loved me".

Moreover, many children who enter 'the life' at an early age are brainwashed by their trafficker to believe that this is the only 'job' they are cut out to do, as Sheila White, Survivor Leadership Coordinator at Girls Education & Mentoring Services (GEMS), writes:

"I too was in a place where I thought being in the life was all I was ever capable of doing. In fact, I never saw myself as a victim of anything and I believed that I would always be defined by my past. It wasn't until I came to GEMS at the age of 16 that my life and self-perception began to change. As time passed, I began to see a difference in myself; I began to believe, confidently, I could actually have a life after being in the life," she .

It is for this reason that sex trafficking survivor, Tina Frundt, says labeling survivors as victims is misleading: "We are never a victim, even on the street. If we label kids that way we take away that notion that we had to survive on the street. We saw rapes, murders, things people never will ever be able to talk about and we survived and we continued on. We're survivors and it's the 'victim' mindset we must transition," she said
10. Sex trafficking funds and resources are misappropriated
While the United States has spent almost $1.2 billion fighting sex trafficking globally, much of those funds have been misallocated on advertising and anti-trafficking campaigns rather than spent on actual evidence-based research and rescue operations.

Furthermore, the tendency for organizations and anti-trafficking groups to inflate trafficking statistics and focus disproportionate attention on "pimped girls" has meant that young boys, transgendered youth and those children of any gender who aren't enslaved by the traditional "pimp" or subject to labor trafficking miss out.

Ronald Weitzer, Professor of Sociology at George Washington University and author of ' Sex Trafficking and the Sex Industry: The Need for Evidence Based Theory and Legislation, explains this motif: "NGOs have figured out that they can appeal to the public, donors and funders if they emphasize sex trafficking of girls, which has a very clear purpose in attracting government funding, public and media attention. If resources are being misappropriated to less frequent types of trafficking then there is a danger that others who are victimized like hidden populations are being ignored. Moreover, if labor trafficking is much more prevalent in the United States than sex trafficking as the International Labor Organization says it is, than it suggests we should alter the balance toward labor trafficking," he said.

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10 Surprising and Counterintuitive Facts About Child Sex Trafficking

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Here's what mainstream media isn't telling you about the commercial sexual exploitation of children in the United States... There are fewer crimes in society that trigger greater public outrage than sex trafficking of children.

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We live in the 21 st century where each and every individual is free to do whatever they like, act however they like, and live however they please. We talk about freedom but in reality, not all individuals are free. Slavery is abolished and is made illegal in all the countries of the world, but people are still slaves to many things, knowingly or unknowingly. One such situation where an individual lacks freedom is prevalent widely amongst many countries of the world till date. This is none other than human trafficking.

Human trafficking can be described as - the trade in humans, most commonly for the purpose of sexual slavery, forced labor or for the extraction of organs or tissues, including surrogacy and ova removal. Human trafficking is done because it ensures that these traffickers get easy money in no time. It is a very risky job but the traffickers have established such a strong network throughout the world that the global police are finding it very difficult to curb these activities. Human trafficking is extremely inhuman and gross and it goes against the very principles of human rights. It is seen that human trafficking is carried out more in poor, under-developed or developing countries than in the rich and developed ones. The countries that have a huge urban-rural gap are especially targeted for human trafficking. Here are the top 10 countries infamous for human trafficking -

10. China

China is a top developing country in the world and everyone keeps talking about how China will soon turn into a super-power. But, one must know as modern and planned the Chinese cities are, equally poor and unplanned are the villages. The urban-rural gap is tremendously huge. China is a source, a transit and a destination for human trafficking. Humans are trafficked mostly for the sake of forced labour or forced prostitution. Because of it's population, the labour in China is cheap. Traffickers make use of this fact and lure poor people into trafficking for labour which is gruesome and hardly pays anything. Forced prostitution happens within the Chinese borders and beyond it. It was recently found out that there are large Chinese human trafficking rackets in Spain and France will buy and sell these Chinese people for about $72,000.

9. Ghana

Ghana is a country situated in the North West region of the African sub-continent. It is not a poor country but it is not a very rich country either. Ghana has a lot of mines, especially gold mines. So Ghana has become a point of origin and a destination for a lot of trafficking in children. These children are forced to work as labourers in these mines. They are not even paid, sometimes. The girl child is forced into prostitution. Apart from that, these children are forced into fishing, begging, agriculture etc. The conditions in which these children live and work is terrible. Sometimes, children are injured on purpose so that people give money to them out of sympathy but this money goes straight into the pockets of the traffickers.

8. Uganda

Uganda is not unknown to miserable life conditions. People in Uganda are subjected to violence on a daily basis due to the conflicts between the state and the rebels. Uganda is a very poor nation and these radicals do not have money to employ people into their armies. So, they traffic children and force them to join the military forces. Children, aged 11, have to vigil these camps with guns heavier than them and sometimes ever kill other people. Girls are forced into sexual slavery by men and they are treated very badly. Sometimes, these young children are killed for their organs which are then sold into the market for a very high price.

7. Nepal

Human trafficking is a very serious concern in the country of Nepal. The most booming type of human trafficking taking place is the trafficking of women from Nepal to India. Almost 5,000 to 10,000 Nepali women and girls are trafficked just to India every year. It is considered to be the busiest route of human trafficking in the world. Nepali girls are favoured in India because of their light skin colour. Apart from that, a lot of people are bought into India from Nepal as India is a fast developing country and in need of a lot of labour. Nepal provides for cheap labour which is forceful. Apart from India, Nepal also has human trafficking connections and routes to other countries across the globe.

6. Sri Lanka

Humans are trafficked in and outside Sri Lanka, mainly for the purposes of domestic help, prostitution and labour. But even within Sri Lanka, children are trafficked around to be used in the military forces. Sri Lanka is a country that had been in turmoil over the Government- LTTE conflicts since a long time. The LTTE sometimes forcibly recruited these children to be used in the war against the government. Girls and women are trafficked into Sri Lanka to be exploited sexually.

5. India

Human trafficking is a major problem in India. Although it is illegal in India by law by these laws are not implemented properly. Humans are trafficked in, out and across India for various purposes such as forced labour, forced prostitution, forced organ implantation etc. Girls are forced to become surrogate mothers against their will. Children are trafficked for working into factories that manufacture dangerous stuff like gunpowder and firecrackers. Sometimes, rackets are run by traffickers wherein they force children to beg. Just so that they earn more by gaining sympathy of passer-bys, the children are subjected to many atrocities such as hot oil is poured into their eyes to blind them, they're beaten till they're greatly injured. Their organs are sold off in the market. Indian government is taking action against this but it does not seem to be working so well.

4. Pakistan

Pakistan, like India, faces a lot of problems due to human trafficking. People are trafficked into the country and are sent out. The biggest problem in human trafficking that Pakistan faces is that of bonded labour. Bonded labour can be for domestic help or for working in industries, factories or in the mines etc. This takes place especially in the Sindh and Punjab regions of Pakistan. Prostitution is also a major reason for human trafficking. Although Pakistan is a very religious, orthodox country, the rate of prostitution is very high.

3. Haiti

Haiti is a small country in South America. It is a very poor country which mostly runs on tourism. Tourists influx from America and Europe is very high in Haiti. Haiti faces the biggest problem of human trafficking in form of slavery and prostitution. But what makes Haiti worse from other countries in this matter is that these prostitutes are young girls aged 12. These girls are forced to have sex with these foreigner tourists who crave for young virgins. They're given $1 for it and sometimes, they have to beg for coins to be able to eat a meal in a day.

2. Brazil

Brazil, like India and China forms a part of the BRICS nation. It is a developing country but the gap between the urban and the rural and also between the rich and the poor is very large. Human trafficking is an on-going problem in Brazil. Women and trafficked extensively as prostitutes because the tourists that come to Brazil wish for them. It is a very lucrative business in Brazil. Men are trafficked as forced labour for doing the gruesome manual labour at a very cheap rate. The Brazilian government is trying very hard to fox this problem.

1. Bangladesh

Bangladesh is the most infamous country when it comes to human trafficking. It is a major hub for trasit routes all across the world. It is a source, transit and destination for human trafficking. Men, women and children are all forced into doing things. Forced prostitution, forced labour, forced organ donations, selling of organs, even selling ova eggs. A lot of Bangladeshi people are trafficked to India and China and from there, they are further moved to other countries. These people have a very terrible life. They are mistreated, they are stowaways, they are poor . Human trafficking is a criminal offence and all the governments and the police forces of the world, along with the UN should join hands in the work against human trafficking.

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Top 10 Countries Infamous for Human Trafficking

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We live in the 21 st century where each and every individual is free to do whatever they like, act however they like, and live however they please. We talk about freedom but in reality, not all individuals are free.

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Think it's not happening in your neighborhood? Think again. Get the facts on child sex trafficking, and let your voice be heard.

What You Need to Know

Sex Trafficking is the recruitment, harboring, transportation, provision, or obtaining of a person for the purpose of a commercial sex act in which a commercial sex act is induced by force, fraud, or coercion, or in which the person forced to perform such an act is under the age of 18 years.

An estimated $9.5 billion is generated in annual revenue from all trafficking activities, with at least $4 billion attributed to the worldwide brothel industry. (Ibid.)

An estimated 2 million children, the majority of them girls, are sexually exploited in the multibillion dollar commercial sex industry. (UNICEF)

An estimated 1.2 million children are trafficked each year. (UNICEF)

Around the world between 50 and 60 percent of the children who are trafficked into sexual slavery are under age 16.

Human trafficking is the second-largest organized crime in the world.

25 percent of all child sex tourists around the world are U.S. citizens.

The largest number of people trafficked into the United States come from East Asia and the Pacific (5,000 to 7,000 victims). The next highest numbers come from Latin America and from Europe and Eurasia, with between 3,500 and 5,500 victims from each. (U.S. Departments of Justice, Health & Human Services, State, Labor, Homeland Security, Agriculture, and the U.S. Agency for International Development. 2004. Assessment of U.S. Government Activities to Combat Trafficking in Persons. Washington, D.C.: U.S. Department of Justice.)

What You Can Do
The government has taken steps to address trafficking both nationally and globally. But we want them to take more action-find out how you can use your voice (and words) to help stop child sex trafficking.

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child sex sexual trafficking facts resources slavery prostitution prostitute

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Think it's not happening in your neighborhood? Think again. Get the facts on child sex trafficking, and let your voice be heard.

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300,000 children in the United States are prostituted each year; are victims of child sex trafficking. The number is disturbing, to say the least.

2 million children are victims of child sex trafficking each year across the globe. The number is staggering, and hard to believe. Yet, the numbers are true and society as a whole seems to look the other way.

You look away, as well.

It is not something that we as a society want to recognize, want to acknowledge, and to fight. It is horrifying and depressing. It makes us feel uncomfortable. Yet, child sex trafficking is all around us. It is in our cities, and even in our neighborhoods. And it is happening to our children, with the average age of a child being trafficked at only 12 years old. Sen. Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn put it wisely when she said, "They're not even old enough to go to a prom, not even old enough to get a driver's license and yet we still are seeing more and more of it on the Internet." The number of children being contacted by sexual predators online is disturbing and astounding at the same time. Approximately one out of every seven children is sexually contacted, or solicited, by a predator while online. Furthermore, many of these children are seriously pursued online by these predators, singling out these children in an attempt to lure them in.

The Trafficking Victims Protection Act ( TVPA) defines "severe forms of trafficking in persons" as: sex trafficking in which a commercial sex act is induced by force, fraud, or coercion, or in which the person induced to perform such an act has not attained 18 years of age."

How big is it? Across the globe, it is a $32 billion industry each year, and human trafficking is on the rise in the United States. In one 2014 study by the Urban Institute in Atlanta Georgia some child traffickers in Atlanta make more than $32,000 a week. Furthermore, the same study also cited research discovering that Atlanta's illegal sex industry generates around $290 million a year.

Most youth who fall victim to prostitution today come from environments where they have already been sexually abuse. To be sure, the majority of children in America who are exploited sexually have already endured a life of physical, sexual, or psychological abuse. Indeed, the contributor to a child entering into a life of child sex trafficking is a prior life of sexual abuse. Along with this, many of these children who have already been exposed to sexual abuse have problems with low self-esteem, and do not receive the educational opportunities they deserve. For some teens who have suffered abuse from the hands of family members, they may seek escape by running away from home. As a result, they are more likely to end up homeless, and may choose a life style of prostitution in order to "make ends meet," financially, so to speak. These youth are more inclined to be placed into foster homes or group homes, and are also more likely to run away. Pimps also attract children by targeting them in group homes, promising them gifts, a sense of belonging, and a place where they will be loved, as well as encouraging them with presents and gifts, all while grooming them for a life of prositution.

Dr. Katariina Rosenblatt, leading expert in Human Trafficking and author of the book Stolen: The True Story of a Sex Trafficking Survivor, was herself a victim of the child sex industry. " I was recruited in my middle school at 14, falling for a false friend who invited me for a sleep over party. My classmate's father was a pedophile and trafficker using his own daughter to recruit other youngsters. Selling us, he had an older man kidnap, blindfold and transport us to an apartment being used as a brothel simply existing under the noses of an average residential apartment complex. During this time I became very addicted to drugs with the drugs then in my system, which left me with yet another vulnerability to being recruited a third time at 15 in the apartment building where I lived. This time, it was an older father figure type pimp preying upon my need for love and protection. In total, I was a victim from 13-17 off and on.
The day to day was mostly a blur hoping to find love in the eyes of the traffickers or customers who paid the trafficker to be with us either through drugs or money. But I fell for the false love and false attention of the men that came, never staying and always breaking my heart leaving me confused and lonely even more than before. To them it was a game or a fantasy but to me it was a sad string of disappointing experiences controlled by dangerous men who carried guns and used intimidation to keep us controlled by drugs and threats. In reality these traffickers and men cared nothing for me or my friends."

The danger is real. It is happening across the globe. It is happening across the nation. It is even happening in our cities, neighborhoods, and even in our own homes. Without a doubt, so many of children have experienced situations and terrors that we might not be prepared for, at first. So many children have been exposed to environments and horrors that are beyond our own experiences. Yet, these are the very children who need to be protected and kept safe from these situations and horrors, ensuring that they never experience them again.

Will you stand up to child sex trafficking? Will you even care?

Dr. John DeGarmo has been a foster parent for 14 years, now, and he and his wife have had over 50 children come through their home. He is a leading consultant and expert in foster care, and serves as a speaker and trainer on many topics about the foster care system. Dr. DeGarmo is the author of several foster care books, including Keeping Foster Children Safe Online, and writes for several publications. He can be contacted at drjohndegarmo@gmail, through his Facebook page, Dr. John DeGarmo, or at The Foster Care Institute.

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The Shocking Truth of Child Sex Trafficking

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300,000 children in the United States are prostituted each year; are victims of child sex trafficking. The number is disturbing, to say the least. 2 million children are victims of child sex trafficking each year across the globe. The number is staggering, and hard to believe.

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Women and trafficked extensively as prostitutes because the tourists that come to Brazil wish for them. It is a very lucrative business in Brazil. Men are trafficked as forced labour for doing the gruesome manual labour at a very cheap rate. The Brazilian government is trying very hard to fox this problem.

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Haiti is worse from other countries in this matter is that these prostitutes are young girls aged 12. These girls are forced to have sex with these foreigner tourists who crave for young virgins. They’re given $1 for it and sometimes, they have to beg for coins to be able to eat a meal in a day.

# data[].attributes.body
Girls are forced to become surrogate mothers against their will. Children are trafficked for working into factories that manufacture dangerous stuff like gunpowder and firecrackers. Sometimes, rackets are run by traffickers wherein they force children to beg. Just so that they earn more by gaining sympathy of passer-byers, the children are subjected to many atrocities such as hot oil is poured into their eyes to blind them, they’re beaten till they’re greatly injured. Their organs are sold off in the market. Indian government is taking action against this but it does not seem to be working so well.

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In Sri Lanka, children are trafficked around to be used in the military forces. Sri Lanka is a country that had been in turmoil over the Government- LTTE conflicts since a long time. The LTTE sometimes forcibly recruited these children to be used in the war against the government. Girls and women are trafficked into Sri Lanka to be exploited sexually.

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Almost 5,000 to 10,000 Nepali women and girls are trafficked just to India every year. It is considered to be the busiest route of human trafficking in the world. Nepali girls are favored in India because of their light skin color. Nepal provides for cheap labor which is forceful. Apart from India, Nepal also has human trafficking connections and routes to other countries across the globe.

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Uganda is not unknown to miserable life conditions. Uganda is a very poor nation and these radicals do not have money to employ people into their armies. So, they traffic children and force them to join the military forces. Children, aged 11, have to vigil these camps with guns heavier than them and sometimes ever kill other people. Girls are forced into sexual slavery by men and they are treated very badly. Sometimes, these young children are killed for their organs which are then sold into the market for a very high price.

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Ghana has become a point of origin and a destination for a lot of trafficking in children. These children are forced to work as laborers in these mines. They are not even paid, sometimes. The girl child is forced into prostitution. The conditions in which these children live and work is terrible. Sometimes, children are injured on purpose so that people give money to them out of sympathy but this money goes straight into the pockets of the traffickers.

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China is a source, a transit and a destination for human trafficking. Humans are trafficked mostly for the sake of forced labour or forced prostitution. Because of it’s population, the labour in China is cheap. Traffickers make use of this fact and lure poor people into trafficking for labour which is gruesome and hardly pays anything. Forced prostitution happens within the Chinese borders and beyond it. It was recently found out that there are large Chinese human trafficking rackets in Spain and France will buy and sell these Chinese people for about $72,000.

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Bangladesh is the most infamous country when it comes to human trafficking. It is a major hub for transit routes all across the world. It is a source, transit and destination for human trafficking. Men, women and children are all forced into doing things. Forced prostitution, forced labor, forced organ donations, selling of organs, even selling ova eggs. A lot of Bangladeshi people are trafficked to India and China and from there, they are further moved to other countries.  Human trafficking is a criminal offence and all the governments and the police forces of the world, along with the UN should join hands in the work against human trafficking.