Child Trafficking Victims: Globally, 35% of all detected victims of trafficking are children. In regions such as Sub-Saharan Africa, North Africa, Latin America, and the Caribbean, children account for 60% to 73% of known trafficking victims.
Increase in Child Trafficking: Over the past 15 years, the proportion of identified child trafficking victims has tripled. The number of boys among these victims has increased fivefold.
Call to Action
Efforts must be intensified globally to protect children from exploitation by ensuring safe migration pathways and enhancing legal frameworks. Governments need to increase accountability measures against traffickers and provide comprehensive support for victims.
Often traffickers will come to a village claiming to be recruiting employees for a large business or corporation. They promise job training, excellent salaries, and the ability to move into higher positions over time. The young women they lure – generally with their parents’ consent or coercion – leave the village with these traffickers and find that once they are in a big city they are sold to a brothel, or otherwise forced to engage in commercial sex work. If they resist, they risk being beaten, raped, or killed. Alone and in an unfamiliar place, there is nothing they can do.