what is trafficking?

Human trafficking is the movement of people by means such as force, fraud or deception, with the aim of exploiting them. It is modern day slavery.

The United Nations describes trafficking as:
'Human Trafficking is the recruitment, transportation, transfer, harbouring or receipt of persons, by means of the threat or use of force or other forms of coercion, abduction, fraud, of deception, of the abuse of power or of a position of vulnerability or of the giving or receiving of payments or benefits to achieve the consent of a person, or have control over another person for the purpose of exploitation. Exploitation shall include, at a minimum , the exploitation of the prostitution of others or other forms of sexual exploitation, forced labour services, slavery or practises similar to slavery, servitude or the removal of organs.’
‘UN Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punish Trafficking in Persons, Especially Women and Children. Supplementing the UN Convention Against Transnational Organised Crime’ UN 2000

The EU Council describes trafficking as:
"the recruitment, transportation, transfer, harbouring, subsequent reception of a person, including exchange or transfer of control over that person, where:
(a) use is made of coercion, force or threat, including abduction, or
(b) use is made of deceit or fraud, or
(c) there is an abuse of authority or of a position of vulnerability, which is such that the person has no real and acceptable alternative but to submit to the abuse involved, or
(d) payments or benefits are given or received to achieve the consent of a person having control over another person for the purpose of exploitation of that person's labour or services, including at least forced or compulsory labour or services, slavery or practices similar to slavery or servitude, or for the purpose of the exploitation of the prostitution of others or other forms of sexual exploitation, including in pornography"
The EU Council Framework Decision on Combating Trafficking in Human Beings

sex trafficking information

  • Women are bought, sold, exploited and traded... used and passed on. Different groups of traffickers will buy and sell as they please, seeing the survivors as a commodity to be used and discarded.
  • One women will make a trafficker between £500 and £1000 a week, that's £26,000-£52,000 per year from one person. Trafficking for sexual exploitation is a high-profit and low-risk endeavour for traffickers. This however is far from true for the women and children they are exploiting in the sex industry.
  • Trafficking survivors are often deceived as to the true nature of the work they will be doing and are subsequently exploited in slave-like conditions... the traffickers grow rich whilst the survivors are trapped, violated and repeatedly abused.
  • Most women and children trafficked for sexual exploitation suffer extreme violations of their human rights, including the right to liberty, the right to dignity and security of person, the right not to be held in slavery or involuntary servitude, the right to be free from cruel and inhumane treatment, the right to be free from violence and the right to health.
  • Poverty, gender-based discrimination and a history of sexual and physical violence are all factors that can make women and children vulnerable to traffickers. Some are abducted and sold, some are deceived into consenting by the promise of a better life or a better job, and some feel that entrusting themselves to traffickers is the only economically viable option.
  • Traffickers use several means to prevent survivors from escaping. These may range from physical restraint in the form of locks and guards, physical or psychological violence, drugging or by instilling a fear of the police, making the survivors believe that they are in fact the offenders.

Based on information gathered and presented by Pan American Health Organisation and UN Gift

trafficking in the UK

The UK is a major destination for trafficked women. Recently the Home Affairs Select Committee produced a report on trafficking ‘The Trade in Human Beings: Human Trafficking in the UK’ stating that at a conservative estimate there are at least 5,000 trafficking survivors in the UK. Previously the figure most widely used and accepted was that 4,000 female survivors of trafficking for sexual exploitation were in the UK. This figure, however, dates back to 2003. 98% of women trafficked into the UK are trafficked for the purposes of sexual exploitation and in a country that has over 80,000 people working in prostitution it is easy to hide those who are trafficked.

Human Trafficking is the second largest illegal trade in the world, as well as the fastest growing form of international crime with an estimated 600,000 – 800,000 people trafficked across international borders each year. Women are brought into the country by criminal gangs in a variety of ways, often travelling on their own passports anticipating a job and a better life style. On arrival in the UK their hopes are all too often shattered.

Trafficked women are moved about the country frequently and may be sold and exchanged between a number of different gangs for anything between £2,000 and £8,000. A trafficked women becomes a commodity to a trafficker- something he can use and then sell on when he has had enough.

Some women are forced to work 16 hours and have sex with 30 men a day.

Human trafficking IS the modern day slave trade and MUST be stopped.

the UK's response

2006 Operation Pentameter
Operation Pentameter was an initiative launched by police forces across Britain and the Irish Republic to crackdown on human trafficking. The first Operation Pentameter in 2006 freed 84 women and teenage girls from brothels and massage parlours and led to 232 arrests.

2006 UKHTC The UKHTC (United Kingdom Human Trafficking Centre) was launched in 2006 as a multi-agency centre to provide a central point for the development of expertise and cooperation in relation to the trafficking of human beings [THB], working together with other stakeholders from the governmental, non-governmental and inter governmental sectors in the UK and abroad. To find out more about the UKHTC use the link above.

2007 ‘UK Action Plan’
Government published the ‘UK Action Plan on Tackling Human Trafficking’

2008 Operation Pentameter 2
Pentameter 2 aimed to rescue and protect survivors of trafficking for sexual exploitation and to identify, disrupt, arrest and bring to justice those involved in criminal activity. For more information about this operation please visit the link above.

2008-2009 Council of Europe Convention
The UK has signed and ratified the ‘Council of Europe Convention on Action Against Trafficking in Human Beings’ and this convention came into force on 1st April 2009

2009 Home Affairs Committee
Published the report ‘The Trade in Human Beings: Human Trafficking in the UK’ to establish want more needs to be done in the UK.

trafficking publications