Child Trafficking Worldwide-Incomplete Data, True Picture Worse Than Official Estimates

Because of the clandestine nature of child trafficking, the exact data on the children trafficked inside their own countries or internationally annually are difficult to obtain. Only data compiled from court cases, hospital records, police and social services are included into existing information. Most countries do not publish reports on child trafficking.

No country is immune. Children are trafficked in industrialized and developing countries.

In developing countries, extreme poverty is at the root of child trafficking with children most often being sold by their parents or guardian. Usually, it is not one extreme situation but a combination of several circumstances that seals the child's fate, with one setting off the trafficking event itself. Other factors are natural disasters, aids, domestic violence, discrimination, street and gang crime, and regional conflicts. Children fleeing from home and children without birth registration are especially vulnerable.

Though kidnapping and abduction sometimes occur, most children are trafficked by people they know. Often, women are the perpetrators. The parents and guardians are usually lured with a promise of employment and education opportunities, in many cases for the whole family.

Trafficked children are exploited for domestic, agricultural and industrial work. They work as domestic servants, as laborers on farms and plantations, in factories and sweat shops, in mining, bars and brothels. In many cultures, when parents contemplate to send their child to work, they usually choose the girl believing that girls don't need education because they are going to marry.

Children forced into begging, pick-pocketing, burglary, muggings, organized crime, drug trade and sex trade are especially vulnerable because they face additional prosecution if caught. Once in the judicial system, they are rarely treated as victims.

In some countries, there is a link between child trafficking and drug trade. Drugs are usually given to trafficked children involved in drug trade to keep them addicted and work as drug dealers and drug couriers. If these children are not rescued in time, they usually continue with this behavior when adults. Additionally, children forced into begging are often mutilated to bring in higher income.

There are approximately 250 000 child soldiers around the world today, one-third of them girls, often serving as sex slaves to adult soldiers.

Commercial sexual exploitation of children (CSEC) in the form of child prostitution, child pornography, sex tourism and underage marriage affects close to 2 million children each year with many of these children being trafficked across international borders. In East Asia and the Pacific, approximately 1 million girls are sexually exploited. Up to 80% of prostitutes in Guatemala are children.

According to the International Centre for Missing and Exploited Children, up to 300 000 American minors younger than 18 years are recruited into sex trade each year, with an average age of entry into prostitution being 13 years old. It is a $9.5-billion a year business operating across all 50 states, even though half of the states have anti-trafficking laws.

The U.S. Department of State 2008 Trafficking in persons report estimated in 2004 that between
600 000 and 800 000 people are trafficked annually across borders, with half of them being minors. Approximately 80% of victims are women and girls. These estimates did not include victims being trafficked inside their own countries.

According to ILO 2002 A Future without Child Labour Report, 1.2 million children are trafficked each year, with 200 000 children being trafficked in Africa alone.

In Europe, most trafficked girls are forced into prostitution, with some being exploited for cheap labor.

Child trafficking is very profitable since the costs associated with it are very low. Often, the victims or their families pay for the trafficking costs from one destination to another. Also, in the event that the children are caught, they can be easily replaced with others.

ILO estimated that in 2005 the annual profits from trafficked forced laborers were US$32 billion.

Trafficking operations are organized either as a business entity in the hands of one organized crime group or sometimes more groups working together in a well organized network, with individuals often providing single services in one area.

Very few cases are prosecuted. According to UN, in two out of every five countries, there were no convictions for human trafficking. Some countries still lack legislation on human trafficking with no policy in place to combat trafficking or to assist victims.

Source; Trafficking in persons report, US Department of State, Washington, DC, 2008, p 8,
A Future without Child Labour Report, ILO, Geneva, 2002, p 32,
The International Centre for Missing and Exploited Children,
UN, UNICEF