Introduction
Trafficking, broadly defined, is illegal trade. However, the term “trafficking” is used
most frequently to describe illegal trade that crosses international boundaries and
involves the transport of people and commodities between places. International traf-
ficking involving the movement of persons and goods is the focus of this volume.
There are two broad types of trafficking: trafficking in persons and trafficking in
commodities. Persons have been trafficked and moved between countries in large
numbers since ancient times. The practice of slavery, in which humans are treated,
bought, and sold as property and have few or no legal rights as persons, has been
documented in societies throughout the world for thousands of years. Despite the
fact that slavery is now illegal in every country around the world, the practice has
not disappeared, and, according to reliable estimates, between 30 and 40 million
people worldwide live under slave conditions today.
Millions of other people are trafficked across international borders although they
are not legally slaves and are not treated overtly as property. Unlike slaves, such persons
generally have some legal rights, although these rights are often unenforced. How-
ever, such persons are forced into various types of activities that are often dangerous,
illegal, and/or degrading, and they live under conditions that make it very difficult
for them to escape their condition.
People are trafficked for many reasons. The most common reasons are forced
labor and the sex trade. Forced laborers work in mining, agriculture, domestic ser
vice, construction, and other jobs, many times involving work under dangerous
and dirty conditions. Often, forced laborers are given little or no pay, are provided
with substandard and unsanitary housing and food, and are subject to corporal
punishment if they attempt to escape their situations. Millions of trafficking vic-
tims, including girls and young women and sometimes boys and young men, are
forced into prostitution, which is a lucrative business throughout the world even
though the practice is illegal in a majority of countries.
Large numbers of forced laborers and forced sex workers are teenagers and
children, some as young as 8 or 9 years of age. Some of these trafficking victims
were kidnapped or abducted before becoming forced laborers or sex workers. Some
are orphans or refugees. Others, especially children, are sold to traffickers by par-
ents or other relatives. Still others are tricked into becoming trafficking victims under
false pretenses—for example by being led to believe that they can earn significant
sums of money to support their families or that they will have the opportunity to
obtain educations or job skills. Once they become trafficking victims, however,
many find it difficult to escape, sometimes because they are threatened with physical
