New report: 12 million trapped in trafficking

Global financial crisis making trafficking even worse.

Vietnamese girls, one as young as 8, sit on a bed in a brothel in a Cambodian village near Phnom Penh in March in this 2002 photo. The vulnerable are prime targets of traffickers. Photo: CNS/Reuters.

WASHINGTON (CNS) – Efforts to combat global human trafficking suffered setbacks last year, in part because a bad global economy left more people vulnerable to traffickers, a new report says.
The US Department of State released its 2009 Trafficking in Persons report on June 16. The annual report documents the efforts of foreign governments to eliminate the most severe forms of human trafficking.
The US government defines severe human trafficking as the use of force, coercion or fraud to obtain labour or induce a commercial sex act.
Kristyn Williams, interim associate director of the anti-trafficking services program for the US bishop’s Migration and Refugee Services, suggested the trafficking report could be “an effective tool” in the prevention of human trafficking worldwide.
According to the report, an estimated 12.3 million people are currently trapped in some form of modern-day slavery.
The report cited the international economic crisis as a driving factor in the rise of human trafficking.
Rising unemployment rates and falling incomes have left desperate workers vulnerable to manipulation by human traffickers, particularly in underdeveloped countries.
Increased international demand for cheap goods also has contributed to the rise in human trafficking, the report said.
It highlighted some positive developments in the effort to combat human trafficking. In 2008, 26 acts of anti-trafficking legislation were introduced or amended worldwide.
The 2009 report contains assessments of more than 175 countries.
Foreign governments are evaluated on their effectiveness in prosecuting traffickers, protection of victims of trafficking and prevention of further trafficking violations.
Each nation is placed on one of three tiers based on the results of these evaluations.
Those in compliance with the US government’s minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking are considered first-tier nations.
Second-tier nations are those that have made significant strides toward meeting the minimum standards, and third-tier nations are those that are making no effort to combat trafficking.
Nations ranked in the third-tier may be subject to economic sanctions.
The report ranked 28 nations in the top tier, down from 29 in 2008. The number of nations in the third tier rose from 14 to 17.