Part 2 - Human Trafficking: Causes, Consequences and Counter-Measures

Trafficking for the Purpose of Sexual Exploitation

The trafficking of persons, mainly women and girls, for the purpose of commercial sexual exploitation has raised significant concern since the 1990s. Traffickers often exploit the desire of women to migrate to another country. They make false promises of arranging lucrative employment abroad, use physical and psychological coercion against victims, impose bogus debts and threaten trafficked persons and their families. There are also boys, and in some cases men, who have been trafficked for sexual exploitation. Trafficking also pertains to the "mail order bride" business, sex tourism and the internet sex industry.

Traffickers, who sometimes form sophisticated transnational networks, benefit from several factors, including discrimination against women and minorities, political instability, corruption, new communication and transport technologies, the demand for cheap labor and sexual services, economic disparities between zones of affluence and poverty and a lack of legal migration and employment opportunities that force many migrants to rely on the services of smugglers, who may turn out to be traffickers. These causes lead to various forms of trafficking, not only trafficking for the purpose of sexual exploitation.

There is increasing awareness about human trafficking for the purpose of labor exploitation, which at a minimum can be defined as forced labor, servitude and slavery-like practices. Whereas before mainly governments were responsible, most victims of labor trafficking nowadays work for private companies. Domestic and factory workers, janitors, restaurant and hotel employees, migrant farm workers, fishermen or beggars can be victims of trafficking, and thus be exposed to physical violence, limited freedom of movement or blackmail.

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