Where does trafficking occur?

"Trafficking thrives in the shadows. And it can be easy to dismiss it as something that happens to someone else, somewhere else. But that is not the case. Trafficking is a crime that involves every nation on earth, and that includes our own."

- Hillary Rodham Clinton, U.S. Secretary of State

Human trafficking is a global phenomenon. It includes sex trafficking, child sex trafficking, forced labor, bonded labor or debt bondage, involuntary domestic servitude, and the unlawful recruitment and use of child soldiers. The demand for people to perform cheap or free labor is present world-wide. In the name of exploitation, there are those who rise up to supply the bodies for this work. The cost of procuring bodies is relatively cheap, and there seems to be a never ending supply of human victims. As a result, victims of human trafficking are not considered human - they are considered to be commodities.

Movement of Victims

"Every country in the world is either an origin country, a transit country or a destination country for human trafficking. UNODC data shows human beings are trafficked from 127 countries and exploited in 137 countries" (TheFreedomProject.org). Typically, victims are from poor, rural, developing, or war-torn or conflict-ridden countries. Victims usually end up in wealthier countries, including the United States and Great Britain.

"Origin countries are Africa, Asia, Central and Eastern European countries, former Eastern bloc and Soviet Union countries, Latin America and the Caribbean. The Highest origin countries are Albania, Belarus, Bulgaria, China, Lithuania, Nigeria, Republic of Moldovia, Romania, Russian Federation, Thailand and Ukraine

Destination areas are Western Europe, Western Africa, Asia, Arab Nations and North America. The highest destination countries are Belgium, Germany, Greece, Israel, Italy, Japan, Netherlands, Thailand, Turkey, USA" (TheFreedomProject.org).

Ranking Efforts to Combat Trafficking on a Global Scale
"The Trafficking in Persons (TIP) Report is the U.S. Government’s principal diplomatic tool to engage foreign governments on human trafficking. It is also the world’s most comprehensive resource of governmental anti-human trafficking efforts and reflects the U.S. Government’s commitment to global leadership on this key human rights and law enforcement issue. It represents an updated, global look at the nature and scope of trafficking in persons and the broad range of government actions to confront and eliminate it. The U.S. Government uses the TIP Report to engage foreign governments in dialogues to advance anti-trafficking reforms and to combat trafficking and to target resources on prevention, protection and prosecution programs. Worldwide, the report is used by international organizations, foreign governments, and nongovernmental organizations alike as a tool to examine where resources are most needed. Freeing victims, preventing trafficking, and bringing traffickers to justice are the ultimate goals of the report and of the U.S Government's anti-human trafficking policy" (www.state.gov/j/tip).

The U.S. Department of State "places each country in the TIP Report onto one of four tiers, as mandated by the Trafficking Victims Protection Act (TVPA). This placement is based more on the extent of government action to combat trafficking than on the size of the problem. The analyses are based on the extent of governments’ efforts to reach compliance with the TVPA’s minimum standards for the elimination of human trafficking, which are consistent with the Palermo Protocol" (Trafficking in Persons Report, 2012).

Tier 1
Countries whose governments fully comply with the TVPA minimum standards.

Tier 2
Countries whose governments do not fully comply with the TVPA’s minimum standards, but are making significant efforts to bring themselves into compliance with those standards.

Tier 2 Watch List
Countries whose governments do not fully comply with the TVPA’s minimum standards, but are making significant efforts to bring themselves into compliance with those standards AND:

• The absolute number of victims of severe forms of trafficking is very significant or is significantly increasing;
• There is a failure to provide evidence of increasing efforts to combat severe forms of trafficking in persons from the previous year; or
• The determination that a country is making significant efforts to bring itself into compliance with minimum standards was based on commitments by the country to take additional future steps over the next year.

Tier 3
Countries whose governments do not fully comply with the minimum standards and are not making significant efforts to do so.

2012 Trafficking in Persons Report Rankings

To read the full report, you can visit http://www.state.gov/documents/organization/192587.pdf

Cuba was the only country to be rated as Tier 3 in the
Western Hemisphere in the 2012 TIP Report.

The number of prosecutions for human trafficking has
steadily increased since 2005.

Tier 1

Australia, Austria, Canada, Denmark, Italy, Nicaragua, Poland, Spain, United States

Tier 2

Argentina, Bolivia, El Salvador, Guyana, Mali, Morocco, Singapore, Tunisia, Uganda

Tier 2WL

Bahrain, Belarus, Haiti, Iraq, Russia, South Sudan

Tier 3

Central African Republic, Cuba, Iran, Kuwait, Libya, Saudi Arabia, Sudan, Zimbabwe