Irregular Migration, Migrant Smuggling and Human Trafficking

Types of human trafficking and their geographic distribution

The predominant type of transnational human trafficking is for forced labour irrespective of the type of border crossings (83% through official border control points and 64% through non-official ones), followed by trafficking for sexual exploitation (15% and 22% respectively) and other forms (2% and 13% respectively). These shares differ when domestic and transnational trafficking are considered together, where sexual exploitation ranks in first position (around 54%), followed by forced labour - which can also take the form of forced begging, peddling and the commission of illicit activities - (around 42%) and other forms of exploitation (including slavery and similar practices at 0.56%, forced marriage at 0.45%, organ removal at 0.03%, forced military service at 0.01% and other forms at 10.46%) (CTDC, 2023).These forms of exploitation can be cumulative; hence the total percentage surpasses 100 per cent. Similar shares are reported by UNODC, with 50 per cent of detected victims being trafficked for sexual exploitation, 38 per cent for forced labour and 12 per cent for other purposes (UNODC, 2021)

This could mean that, more than for other forms of exploitation, trafficking for sexual exploitation not only occurs in transnational instances of trafficking, but is also prevalent in domestic cases. As noted by UNODC, there are disparities in the forms of exploitation among regions: while trafficking for sexual exploitation is predominant in most regions, the most prevalent form of exploitation in Africa and the Middle East is forced labour (at least among identified victims; see figure below).

From WMR 2022, Ch. 10.

The main sectors of trafficking for forced labour are domestic work (30% of identified victims), construction (16%), agriculture (10%), manufacturing (9%) and hospitality (8%) (CTDC, 2021). As for other forms of exploitation, trafficking in these sectors tends to be highly intraregional, and even intra-subregional. However, as apparent in the figure below, exploitation in the hospitality sector and, to a lesser extent, in domestic work, are more likely to span beyond the victims’ subregions of origin, with 54 per cent and 43 per cent of victims respectively identified outside their subregions. Victims trafficked in the hospitality sector predominantly come from Eastern Europe (43%) and South-East Asia (26%) and are exploited in North America (19%) and Eastern Europe (19%) (CTDC, 2021) Victims of trafficking in domestic work are mainly from South-East Asia (66%) and Eastern Europe (9%) and are exploited in South-East Asia (37%), Western Asia (20%) and North America (16%)(CTDC, 2021).

From WMR 2022, Ch.10.