Information service of the Pontifical Mission Societies since 1927
EUROPE/SPAIN – Trafficking of human persons, "flourishing business on the increase”
Madrid (Agenzia Fides) – Trafficking of human persons moves between 7,000 and 10,000 million dollars a year; some 2 million children are forced into prostitution for the global sex trade; 20.9 million people are trapped in forced labour, 55 per cent are women and girls. The figures are part of a report about the activity of SJM Servicio Jesuita a Migrantes, (Jesuit Migrants Service) in Spain, prepared by the Istituto Universitario delle Migrazioni di Comillas on the problem, in view of the World Day against Human Trafficking to be marked on 30 July.
Human trafficking is becoming a "flourishing trade which continues to expand in the new global economy", says the SJM report, sent to Fides. According to the United Nations Organization "human trafficking" involves at least four million people every year for an estimated economic value between 7,000 and 10,000 million dollars. Although the form of trafficking most frequently revealed is sexual exploitation (79 per cent), there exist two other forms of exploitation: exploitation of workers and human organ trade.
According to the World Migrant Organization every year an estimated 500,000 women, mainly from developing countries, arriving in western Europe often lured by false promises of employment in a rich country are sexually exploited.
The second most frequently discovered form is worker exploitation. According to the International Labour Organization (ILO) some 20.9 million workers are exploited. This happens in the sectors of construction, agriculture, textile industry, domestic work, in transport companies and in organised begging. This form of trafficking is a violation of workers’ rights, since the victims are forced to work in inhuman conditions: prolonged hours, low or non-existent wage, work places which fail to respect the minimum rules of hygiene and security, situations of servitude for debts…The study concludes that reported cases in the labour field continue to be few, whereas sexual exploitation of women is still the most frequently reported and is therefore the most documented form of human trafficking. (SL) (Agenzia Fides 23/07/2015)
