Human Trafficking Statistics – Global and Canadian

Note: This may be the most incomplete statistics sheet that you ever work with. Human trafficking is grossly underreported and clandestine. Often victims are fearful, don’t understand their rights, don’t have documentation proving who they are and/or may have been forced into criminal activity, so they are hesitant to report their own victimization to authorities. In addition to this, laws and their enforcement vary from country to country resulting in an inaccurate picture of the scope of the crime. Globally there are very few statistics available because of these challenges.

Global Statistics:

In 2005 the International Labour Organization (ILO) estimated that human trafficking had annual profits of approximately US$31.6 billion.
The Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development says that human trafficking is the third largest grossing sector of organized crime after drugs and arms.
United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime's Global Report on Trafficking in Persons (2009) reveals that the majority of trafficking victims identified by states are women and children who make up 88% of all victims (66% of victims are women, 13% girls, 9 % boys, and 12% men).
The US Department of State’s 2008 Trafficking in Persons Report estimated that there are at least 800,000 people trafficked across borders annually, the majority being women trafficked for commercial sexual exploitation. Approximately 80 per cent of transnational victims are women and girls and 20 per cent are men and boys. This does not account for the estimated millions who are trafficked within their own countries.
UNICEF estimates that more than one third of victims of human trafficking come from, pass through or end up in South-East Asia.
In their 2002 report, the ILO states that 1.2 million children are trafficked every year for labour and sexual exploitation.
UNICEF estimates that 5.7 million children are trapped in forced and bonded labour and that children represent half of forced labourers.
In the 2004 Give2Asia Laos Safe Shelter Proposal it is stated that due to weak social re-integration and other services, the number of girls who are re-trafficked continues to increase. At the time of the proposal the re-trafficking rate was 15-20 per cent.

Canadian Statistics:

Canada is a source, transit, and destination country for human trafficking according to the US Department of State’s 2008 Trafficking in Persons Report.
The RCMP estimates that 600-800 persons are trafficked into Canada annually, predominantly for sexual purposes, and that an additional 1,500-2,200 persons are trafficked through Canada into the United States.
Women, children, and men have been identified as victims of trafficking in Canada according to the US Department of State’s 2006 Trafficking in Persons Report.
Trafficking victims are predominantly from Eastern Europe, Asia (sub-Mekong region), and Africa, according to the United States Department of State’s 2008 Trafficking in Persons Report and United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime's Global Report on Trafficking in Persons (2009).
There is no reliable data on the number of persons trafficked within Canada. Aboriginal women are disproportionately affected according to the 2007 Report of the Standing Committee on the Status of Women, Turning Outrage into Action to Address Trafficking for the Purpose of Sexual Exploitation in Canada.
Girls as young as 12 are trafficked in Canada for sexual purposes according to Criminal Intelligence Service Canada’s 2008 Strategic Intelligence Brief, Organized Crime and Domestic Trafficking in Persons in Canada.
There have been five convictions of human trafficking since the Human Trafficking law was enacted in the criminal code in 2005. There are 12 outstanding cases at the moment according to the Justice Canada representative at the Bill C-268 committee hearings.

For a copy of the report and/or interviews, please contact:

Tiffany Baggetta
905-565-6200 ext. 2485
416-305-9612 (cell)
tiffany_baggetta@worldvision.ca