Human trafficking is a global problem.
The International Labour Organization (ILO) estimates that more than 27m people worldwide are trapped in forced labour, including sex work, on any given day.
Almost a quarter of trafficking victims are women and girls exploited in the commercial sex industry, while others are forced to work in sectors such as agriculture, domestic work, and services.
Repulsive and illegal though it is, human trafficking persists because of the enormous sums of money it generates.
An ILO report put annual profits from trafficking and forced labour at $236bn (€206bn) in 2024.
Forced commercial sexual exploitation accounted for more than 70% of profits.
These profits are only possible because there is a demand for the ‘product’.
Criminal gangs may organise human trafficking, but they are not the only ones who are culpable.
Every trafficked man, woman, and child finds himself or herself in that nightmare because of a market created by others.
Traffickers of course bear the primary criminal responsibility, but others create the demand.
The people who pay for sex cannot plausibly claim ignorance that the women involved may be victims of coercion or human trafficking.
Property owners who turn a blind eye to obvious signs that their properties are being used for sexual exploitation facilitate the exploitation.
Employers who pay impossibly low wages to vulnerable migrants are effectively participating in forced labour.
People do not have to be a member of a criminal organisation to become essential to its activities.
The scale of the problem....
