It is currently estimated that each year between 600,000 y 800,000 men, women and minors of age around the world are victims of human trafficking in its different forms, both inside and outside the victims’ country of origin. These victims are forced to generate money for other people through forced work of various forms: prostitution, mining, factory work, servitude or compulsory military recruitment. Most of the time these forms of exploitation take place under dangerous and degrading conditions, but rake in an estimated 9,500 billion dollars annually, an amount only comparable to arms and drug trafficking.

The International Labor Organization (ILO / OIT) meanwhile estimates that this number can be even larger: Following a 2002 study, they calculated that approximately 1,2 million children were victims of trafficking for sexual and labor purposes.

The gravity of the problem has caused it to become relevant both at the national and international level, not only due to the violation of the victims’ human rights, but also because of its transnational nature and its handling by large mafias and organized criminals.


The problem does not only manifest itself in poor or developing countries: These are usually only the points of origin of the victims. The arrival points are often the developed countries that supposedly offer the victims a better quality of life. Additionally, the small or large scale internal trafficking that takes place in every country cannot be ignored.

According to Colombia´s Administrative Department of Security, it is estimated that in Colombia alone, 2 out of 10 people leave the country as trafficking victims. The most common destinations for these victims are Spain and Japan.

The “Polaris” project against human trafficking estimates that in the United States alone , 17,500 foreigners are victims of trafficking. Reports of this crime have been filed in 91 cities in which more than the half of the victims are minors of age.

In Holland, between 1995 and 2000 there were 756 reports of trafficking cases of which 88% resulted in a successful prosecution.

In the UK, in 8 cases reported between 1998 and 2000, assets worth over 1 million pounds resulting from trafficking crimes were seized and confiscated, a small indication of the economic power of the mafias.