It is a family member in
almost half of the cases who forces a child into human trafficking, says a
first of its kind study by the United Nations' migration agency- the International
Organisation for Migration (IOM).
Statistics from the
Counter-Trafficking Data Collaborative (CTDC), an IOM imitative, reveal that
children are "most commonly trafficked for sexual exploitation, beggary
and domestic work and are most likely to be coerced into trafficking through
physical, sexual and psychological abuse". The study emphasises on the
need to have more specific prevention efforts keeping this in mind.
In India, nearly one lakh
children go missing every year, according to the Ministry of Home Affairs data.
The CTDC data also reveals
that a family member is more likely to target boys than girls. Statistics also
say that the "family involvement is up to four times higher in cases of
adult trafficking."
The 2016 Global Report on
Trafficking in Persons by the UN's Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) also
corroborates this revelation confirming the insider hand of family, "Most
of the time, the trafficking is not committed by highly organized criminal
networks, but rather by family members, acquaintances and neighbours."
With increasing awareness and
tough legal actions, the human traffickers' focus is shifting from women
trafficking to the trafficking of men and children.
While 51 per cent of the
trafficked victims are still women, the number has gone down from 66 per cent
in 2006 whereas in the same period, the number of trafficked men and children
has gone up from 34 per cent to 49 per cent now. For children, this figure is
now 28 per cent from 22 per cent in 2006.
CTDC is the first global
database on human trafficking, hosting information from across the world. It is
first of its kind portal that presents to the world an open access to a
repository of human trafficking data from multiple counter-trafficking
agencies. The portal also hosts 80,000 case studies of human trafficking with
victims from as many as 180 countries.
William Lacy Swing, IOM's
Director General says "his organization is taking a leading role in
increasing the access to the critical information in order to strengthen
counter-trafficking interventions" and has called on governments and other
agencies to partner and step up efforts.
©SantoshChaubey