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The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) has released the Global Report on Trafficking in Persons 2024. 

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• This is the eighth edition of the report, with the first one published in 2009.
• This edition of the Global Report provides a snapshot of the trafficking patterns and flows at global, regional and national levels. 
• It covers 156 countries and provides an overview of the response to the trafficking in persons by analysing trafficking cases detected between 2019 and 2023.
• It highlights trends in detections and convictions, comparing recent data to historical patterns since UNODC began collecting data in 2003. 
• A key emphasis is on the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on trafficking trends and responses.

Key Highlights of the Report

Child trafficking, trafficking for forced labour and forced criminality are rising as poverty, conflict, and climate change leave more people vulnerable to exploitation.

The global detection of trafficking victims increased by 25% in 2022 compared to 2019.

The most common forms of exploitation are forced labour, sexual exploitation, and forced criminality. 

In 2022, 31% more child trafficking cases were detected compared to pre-pandemic levels in 2019, with a 38% rise in cases involving girls.

• Boys are typically detected in forced labour and forced criminality, while girls are mostly trafficked for sexual exploitation. 
• In 2022, 61% of trafficking victims detected worldwide were female.

Adults make up the majority of detected victims. Among all detected victims, 39% were adult females and 22% were girls. 

74% of traffickers were part of organized crime groups, while about 26% were non-organized criminals.

In 2022, men accounted for 70% globally of those investigated, prosecuted, and convicted of trafficking in Persons. 

• Women counted for around 25-30% while children were rarely reported as offenders. 

In 2022, UNODC recorded at least 162 different nationalities that were trafficked to 128 different countries of destination. 

Victims are trafficked globally through many international routes, with African victims being trafficked to the most destinations.

In 2022, just 17% of global convictions were for forced labour, compared to 72% for sexual exploitation. 

Of the total cross-border flows detected, 31% involve citizens of African countries thus making Africa the trafficking origin with the most destinations both within and outside the region (towards Europe and the Middle-East).

Steps taken by India to tackle Human Trafficking 

• India has ratified the UN Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punish Trafficking in Persons, Especially Women and Children in 2011. 
• Article 23 of the Constitution of India prohibits trafficking in human beings and ‘begar’ and other similar forms of forced labour. 
• Section 143 to 146 of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS), 2023 provides penal provisions for various forms of trafficking in persons, habitual dealing in slaves and unlawful compulsory labour.