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World must do more to stop human trafficking: UN

VIENNA: The trafficking of people for sexual exploitation or forced labour affects virtually every region of the world, and governments should do more to reduce demand, protect victims and bring perpetrators to justice, the UN crime agency said in a new report.

Authorities also should step up their efforts to systematically report cases of human trafficking so they can properly assess the scope of the problem and strengthen efforts to prosecute and convict offenders, the Vienna-based UN Office on Drugs and Crime said in the report being released today (Monday).

People from 127 countries all too often end up exploited in 137 nations, the study found.

“The fact that slavery - in the form of human trafficking - still exists in the 21st century shames us all,” the agency’s executive director, Antonio Maria Costa, said in an introduction to the report, denouncing the mistreatment of people “who are handled as commodities and exploited in an ever-larger number of destination countries.”

Most victims are women and children abducted or recruited in their homelands, transported through other countries and exploited in “destination countries,” the UN report says. It warns that human trafficking for sexual exploitation is reported much more frequently than trafficking for forced labour, and that destination countries include Germany, Greece and the Netherlands.

Victims predominantly come from Africa, central and southeastern Europe, the former Soviet Union, Latin America and the Caribbean, the report found. It said Asia serves as both an area of origin and as a destination.

Although most victims end up in Western Europe and the United States, Israel, Japan, Thailand and Turkey also are frequently identified as destination countries, the study said. Examples of the most popular transit countries include Albania, Bulgaria, Hungary, Italy, Poland and Thailand.

In Africa, where many victims originate, Nigeria ranks among the top recruiting countries, followed closely by Benin, Ghana and Morocco. The main destination for African victims is Western Europe and Western Africa, highlighting the existence of intra-regional trafficking, the UN agency said.

Asia serves both as a region of origin and destination, with Thailand, Japan, India, Taiwan and Pakistan involved in intra-regional trafficking, it said, adding that trafficking into the region from other parts of the world is reported to be mainly from former Soviet republics.

While China and Thailand top the list of countries that serve as the most popular recruitment grounds, Bangladesh, Cambodia, India and Myanmar were among other nations reportedly producing a high number of victims. Thailand, Japan, Israel and Turkey rank as the most popular destination countries for Asian victims, said the report, which also ranks Thailand very high as a country of origin and transit. AP

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