Thursday 30th July marks World Day Against Trafficking in Persons.
Trafficking 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.
what is trafficking?
Trafficking is defined as is the process of trapping people through the use of violence, deception or coercion and exploiting them for financial or personal gain. Examples of this include sexual exploitation, forced labour, slavery, servitude or the removal of organs.
30th July 2024
This year, World Day Against Trafficking in Persons focuses on the trafficking of children. Globally, one in three victims of human trafficking is a child, and the majority of these trafficked children are girls.
According to the Global Report on Trafficking in Persons (GLOTIP) by the UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), children are twice as likely as adults to face violence during trafficking.
The proliferation of online platforms poses additional risks, as children often connect to these sites without adequate safeguards.
Children are subjected to various forms of trafficking, including forced labour, crime, begging, illegal adoption, sexual abuse and the online dissemination of abusive images, and some are also recruited into armed groups.
The reasons for child trafficking are also numerous. Some of the most prominent are: poverty, insufficient support for unaccompanied minors in the face of increasing migration and refugee flows, armed conflicts, dysfunctional families, and lack of parental care.
Human trafficking is also referred to as modern slavery or exploitation.
Trafficking is not exclusive to any type of work, there are many workplaces where a young person is being trafficked, This could be manual jobs, construction, in someone’s home or prostitution etc.
spread the word this World Day Against Trafficking in Persons
Get involved by joining the conversation and using the hashtags #EndHumanTrafficking and #HumanTrafficking on all digital platforms. Share this blue heart on your social media, the blue heart represents the sadness of those who are trafficked while reminding us of the cold-heartedness of those who buy and sell fellow human beings. Click here to find out more about the Blue Heart campaign and how you can get involved.
