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GLOBAL REPOR
T ON
TRAFFICKING IN PERSONS
2014
42
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2
Trafficking in persons and armed conflicts
As other disasters, armed conflicts can have an
impact on the level on trafficking in persons in
affected communities. Conflicts increase the vul-
nerable populations, in connection for instance
with the number of displaced people and refugees.
Conflicts often cause decay of national institutions,
generate gender imbalances in conflict zones, and
create a demand for combatants. Mobility by itself
creates vulnerabilities when people lose their sup-
port networks and face situations where the lan-
guage and the management of everyday life are
different. These are all factors that amplify traffick-
ing flows originating from or destined to conflict
areas. According to the information collected for
this Report, during the period 2011-2013, eight
countries in the world report having detected Syrian
victims, while victims from this country were very
rarely detected before the beginning of the Syrian
turmoil in 2011. Most of these victims have been
detected in the Middle East and in Western Europe.
It can be assumed that this increase parallels the
large numbers of displaced people and refugees
escaping conflict areas (UNHCR reports that there
are some 6.5 million Syrians who are internally
displaced, and 2.5 million are refugees).
I
Child soldiering is a form of trafficking that has
been widely documented.
II
Most of the cases are
reported from countries in Africa, where the differ-
ent armed groups operating in Central and West
Africa have been forcibly recruiting children to use
them as combatants for decades. The number of
victims detected are of concern. UNICEF reported
in May 2014 that at least 6,000 children have been
recruited by armed groups in the Central African
Republic.
III
In the Democratic Republic of the
Congo, the United Nations Organization Stabiliza-
tion Mission documented the recruitment of 996
children over a 20-month period in 2012-2013.
IV
Victims are not only Congolese, but also children
from neighbouring countries as these armed groups
are mobile and operate across the entire Central
African region.
v
Similar practices have been docu-
mented in this and previous Report editions during
conflicts in Africa, different countries in the Middle
East as well as in South America.
Conflicts may also create demand for victims of
sexual exploitation. This is due to the situation
where organized crime activities are often strength-
ened due to social degradation and the absence of
rule of law. This may open the door to various
human rights violations, including trafficking in
persons for sexual exploitation. It has been docu-
mented how the stationing of troops, peacekeepers
and stabilization forces (including those operating
under the United Nations flag) in conflict and post-
conflict zones may have fuelled the demand for girls
and young women trafficked for sexual exploitation
in some parts of the world.
VI
I
2014 United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR)
country operations profile - Syrian Arab Republic,
Statistical
snapshot as of January 2014,
available at: http://www.unhcr.
org/pages/49e486a76.html.
II
See, for example, United Nations,
Impact of Armed Conflict on
Children
- Report of Graça Machel, Expert of the Secretary-
General of the United Nations. A/51/306, 26 August 1996;
UNICEF,
Machel Study 10-Year Strategic Review Children and
Conflict in A Changing World,
April 2009.
III
UNICEF,
Children in Crisis in Central African Republic – a
Four Month Progress Report,
May 2014.
IV
MONUSCO (United Nations Organization Stabilization Mis-
sion in the Democratic Republic of the Congo),
Child Recruit-
ment by Armed Groups in DRC,
October 2013.
V
See, for example, United Nations,
Report of the Secretary-
General on the United Nations Organization Stabilization Mis-
sion in the Democratic Republic of the Congo
, various reports
covering the years 2010-2013 (available at: http://www.un.org/
en/peacekeeping/missions/monusco/reports.shtml); United
Nations,
Report of the Secretary-General on children and armed
conflict in the Democratic Republic of the Congo
(S/2014/453),
2014; United Nations,
Report of the Secretary-General on the
situation in the Central African Republic
(S/2013/787), 2013.
VI
See, for example, United Nations,
Special measures for protection
from sexual exploitation and sexual abuse
– Reports of the Sec-
retary-General for the years 2003-2008 (A/58/777; A/59/782;
A/60/861; A/61/957; A/62/890; A/63/720) ; United Nations,
Activities of the Office of Internal Oversight Services on peace-
keeping operations for the period from 1 January to 31 December
2012
– Report of the Office of Internal Oversight Services
(A/67/297 (Part II)), 2013; Mendelson, S.E.,
Barracks and
brothels: peacekeepers and human trafficking in the Balkans,
Center for Strategic and International Studies, 2005.
Global overview
I
43
TRAFFICKERS, ORGANIZED CRIME
AND THE BUSINESS OF EXPLOITA-
TION
The analysis of the patterns and flows has revealed that
trafficking in persons is an intricate crime. The definition
of trafficking in persons comprises a series of actions car-
ried out by different actors, victimizing different persons
in different ways by different means. On the surface, the
children sold by their parents to work as street vendors or
who are exploited in domestic servitude are very different
from the transcontinental trade of women exploited in
the commercial sex markets of Western Europe, migrants
from Latin America exploited in agriculture in North
America, or men exploited in the construction sector in
the Middle East. What they do have in common is that
they are victimized through a trafficking process.
Regions differ not only in terms of where the trafficking
takes place or which trafficking patterns prevail. Within
the same geographical area, victims may have been traf-
ficked from a distant region, from a neighbouring country,
or from a nearby village to be exploited in brothels or the
catering industry, in agriculture or begging, or as domestic
servants. All these forms and flows coexist everywhere in
the world. However, while the suffering of the victims is
the same, the trafficking organizations differ in line with
the process required for bringing the victims into an
exploitative situation.
In which ways are domestic and transregional trafficking
different, and how are they similar? What is the role of
organized crime in human trafficking, and how do traf-
fickers operate? A qualitative analysis of the court cases
submitted by Member States combined with a quantita-
tive analysis of the profiles of victims and offenders will
help to clarify and categorize different forms of
trafficking.
Individual traffickers and organized
groups
Non-organized domestic trafficking
As shown in some of the court cases, coercing one ado-
lescent from the very same village or region for prostitu-
tion, for instance, can be easily conducted by one or two
people. In the previously discussed case from El Salvador,
the shop owner could easily deceive a young girl by taking
advantage of her age to force her into sexual exploitation
for his shop’s clients. This is an example of the relative
ease with which single individuals can victimize children.
In this case, the recruitment method was simply a promise
of a proper job in the shop. The shop owner was arrested
and convicted in 2011 with a prison sentence of eight and
a half years for trafficking in persons.
Similar cases are recorded everywhere in the world. In
Europe, the Austrian authorities reported a court case of
a young man from Central Europe who easily managed
to deceive two young compatriots with a promise of a
decent job in Austria. Once at destination, a relatively
short drive from their home, the trafficker physically
threatened them in order to force them into street pros-
titution. With the help of people passing by, the victims
managed to escape, and the trafficker was convicted with
a prison sentence of six years. A similar case was submit-
ted by Canada, where a single individual started to exploit
his girlfriend in prostitution. This local trafficker leveraged
his power over the girl, and turned what had seemed like
an intimate relationship into an exploitative situation. He
received a five-year prison sentence.
Such cases do not always involve sexual exploitation, how-
ever. In another court case, submitted by Nigeria, a woman
was convicted of recruiting two young boys by promising
their parents that they would receive an education. But
the boys were never put into school once they arrived at
the woman’s residence, which was far from their home-
towns. Instead, they were made to work as street hawkers,
giving all the profits to the trafficker, and they also had to
do her domestic work. Moreover, the boys were not fed
properly, and were also beaten on occasion. The trafficker
was sentenced to two years’ imprisonment.
Many other cases could illustrate how human trafficking
can be easily conducted by single individuals with a lim-
ited organization in place. This is particularly true if it is
conducted against one or a few victims exploited locally.
In such cases, the individual traffickers and their victims
are either citizens of the country where the exploitation
takes place, or foreigners who have been living many years
in that country or foreigners from a nearby location. These
cases nearly always involve trafficking within the same
country or between neighbouring countries, and a limited
number of victims.
The fact that this type of trafficking is conducted by indi-
viduals acting independently does not mean it is uncom-
mon. According to the data collected, domestic trafficking
accounts for 34 per cent of the total number of detected
victims, and trafficking conducted within countries
GLOBAL REPOR
T ON
TRAFFICKING IN PERSONS
2014
44
belonging to the same subregion accounts for 37 per cent.
Of course, not all are operated by individuals alone, but
this is a phenomenon which may be a substantial part of
domestic trafficking. A study conducted in Amsterdam
shows that a vast majority of the cases of women trafficked
for sexual exploitation there have some characteristics of
dysfunctional intimate partner relations rather than an
organized crime activity. In this study, the trafficker enjoys
the revenues generated by the prostitution of his partner,
and the girlfriend is subjugated to her pimp on the basis
of her emotional relationship with him.
16
Organized subregional trafficking
In contrast to individual traffickers, those traffickers who
operate in an organized group
17
may be able to traffic more
victims and to operate in different countries in a coordi-
nated manner. A greater level of organization may enable
the exploitation of more victims and thus higher revenues,
especially when traffickers operate in wealthy countries.
One of the court cases reported by Norway involved an
extended family group from another European country.
Members of this group were found to have trafficked four
young girls from within the extended family for exploita-
tion through shoplifting, begging and the selling of fake
gold jewellery. For one of the victims, the case also
involved forced marriage and rape. Six perpetrators were
convicted and received prison sentences ranging from one
and a half years to three and a half years.
Many similar examples were found within the court cases,
particularly with regard to trafficking for sexual exploita-
tion. For example, Lithuania reported a case where five
local citizens, who operated as a group, were convicted.
This group specialized in recruiting mainly underage girls
from Lithuania and other Baltic countries, with the pur-
pose of selling them to other criminal groups for exploita-
tion in Western Europe. The main activities of the
convicted offenders were recruitment and transportation.
This implied deceiving the victims and transporting them,
by plane or car, to their destinations in several Western
European countries. Here, the group sold the victims to
16 Verhoeven, M., et.al. (2013), ‘Relationships between suspects and
victims of sex trafficking. Exploitation of prostitutes and domestic
violence parallel in Dutch trafficking cases,’
European Journal of
Criminal and Policy Research,
12 December 2013.
17 According to the United Nations Convention against Transnational
Organized Crime, an organized crime group is understood to be a
group of three or more persons, in existence for a period of time,
acting in concert to commit at least one serious crime (punishable
by at least four years of incarceration) in order to obtain financial or
material benefit.
other groups who would then force them into sexual
exploitation. This clear transnational organized crime
activity required connections with other groups, signifi-
cant investments for travel and border crossing, and overall
coordination and distribution of labour.
The transnational nature of these trafficking processes
increases the risks of being arrested – whether for traffick-
ing in persons or other offences – especially if the border
crossings require control of travel documents. In the case
above, such an elaborate organization would not have been
required if the victims were exploited within the national
border or in a neighbouring Baltic country, and the detec-
tion risk would have been lower.
The cases discussed above refer to trafficking episodes that
took place within the same subregion, that is, within a
limited geographical range. Nonetheless, they show that
this type of trafficking may require an organized network,
especially if this entails trafficking more victims across the
borders with exploitation taking place over an extended
period of time.
Organized transregional trafficking
Some trafficking cases require substantial levels of organi-
zation. Israel, for example, reported a court case of a traf-
ficking ring that moved women from different Eastern
European countries into Israel for sexual exploitation. The
ring comprised a dozen traffickers whose activities ranged
from the recruitment of victims, to their illegal border
crossing to the destination country (which in some cases
included being smuggled across the desert), and their
exploitation in brothels controlled by the criminals in dif-
ferent parts of the country. The group operated in differ-
ent countries in Eastern Europe, Western Europe and the
Middle East for about seven years, starting around 1999.
The high level of organization was also proved by the fact
that the traffickers were able to move parts of the business
into other countries once the Israeli law enforcement
arrested some of the group members. In this case, the 12
traffickers were convicted and received prison sentences
ranging between 1 and 16 years of imprisonment.
Similarly, Canada reported a case of Central European
victims exploited in forced labour in the province of
Ontario. The victims were forced into construction work
by a sophisticated criminal organization that was also
involved in other criminal activities. The traffickers
recruited labourers in their origin country with promises
of decent jobs. Once at destination they were exploited
for long hours. This group was able to exploit 23 mostly
Global overview
I
45
male victims in forced labour, mainly working on differ-
ent construction sites, with recruitment, transporting and
exploiting activities conducted across two continents. The
Canadian authorities describe the group as highly organ-
ized and structured around family ties. The criminals were
not only keeping the victims under constant control in
Canada, they were also threatening their families back in
Europe. Moreover, the traffickers were also using the vic-
tims to conduct welfare fraud against the Canadian state.
Finally, the traffickers were involved in theft and money-
laundering in Canada and Europe, which suggests that it
was a sophisticated and well-organized criminal group. In
this trafficking case, convictions were secured by the Cana-
dian authorities in January 2011. The leader of the organi-
zation received a nine-year sentence, with other members
receiving shorter sentences and/or substantial fines.
As the Israeli case above indicates, the endurance of cer-
tain trafficking flows may be an indicator that transna-
tional organized crime networks are behind the crime. For
example, Nigerian trafficking flows into Western Europe
have been significant for several years, and reports from
different European criminal justice authorities indicate
that this trafficking flow is very well organized, and also
difficult to detect (for further information on this type of
trafficking, see the text box on page 56). Moreover,
Norway reported a case of one West African victim who
was rescued and assisted in Norway. This victim was ille-
gally smuggled from West Africa through North Africa,
South-Eastern and Western Europe, to finally end up in
Norway. The level of organization that this sort of travel
requires for an irregular immigrant is considerable. Even-
tually the victim was forced into street prostitution in
Norway to pay back a debt of 50,000 euro to her traffick-
ers. The traffickers had contact with family members of
the victim in the origin country, along the smuggling
route, and in different parts of Europe. Threats to family
members were used to keep the victim compliant. The
case brief stated that this “network maintained a steady
stream of women into prostitution in Europe”.
From the cases discussed here, and for many others col-
lected by UNODC, it can be concluded that the trans-
nationality of the flows – particularly when the movement
involves restricted border crossings - the victimization of
more persons at the same time, and the endurance in con-
ducting the criminal activity, are all indicators of a high
level of organization of the trafficking network behind the
flow. While in the case of domestic or local trafficking,
exploiting a limited number of victims within a limited
geographical area usually does not require a large or very
sophisticated organization.
How organized are the traffickers?
As discussed above, the perpetrators and their levels of
organization vary from one individual managing to traffic
one victim, to large-scale networks that are able to move
many victims from one continent to another, and to
exploit them for years. There are of course no clear bound-
aries between these scenarios, but rather, different ways
of organizing the trafficking, as well as distinctive skills,
assets and capacities among the participants. In addition,
groups and networks may change, expand or shrink over
time for various reasons.
Does the profile of the offender vary according to the
sophistication of the trafficking operations? As discussed
in the section on offenders, in general terms, traffickers
usually either have a connection with the territory where
they operate or with the citizenship of the victims. They
exploit victims related to their own community or citizen-
ship, and they may also be citizens of the place where the
trafficking is happening. It may be easier for persons with
the same citizenship to gain a potential victim’s trust. As
shown by Zhang, many trafficking in persons operations
make use of this relatively easy connection with the victim
to carry out the crime.
18
And it is easier for traffickers to
operate in territories where they have or have had citizen-
ship or very close links, be it in origin or destination
countries.
In a court case from Australia, 11 South-East Asian
women were trafficked into the country for exploitation
in prostitution in different cities. The trafficker was a
woman originally from the same country as the victims,
but she was living in Australia at the time of the crime.
She was seemingly operating alone, but she did have con-
nections in the origin country where someone was arrang-
ing the travel of the victims, including the acquisition of
visas. She also had connections with brothel owners in
different parts of Australia. In July 2010, the main
offender was convicted and sentenced to two years and
three months’ imprisonment.
In the same year, in another court case, the Danish author-
ities reported having convicted an intimate couple from
another European country for having trafficked a cona-
18 Zhang, S. X. (2012),
Trafficking of Migrant Laborers in San Diego
County: Looking for a Hidden Population,
San Diego, CA: San Diego
State University.
GLOBAL REPOR
T ON
TRAFFICKING IN PERSONS
2014
46
tional into Denmark and forced her into prostitution for
one and half years. In a different case from Denmark, nine
persons from Eastern Europe were convicted for having
organized a criminal group the national authorities
describe as
well-organized and structured in relation to their
different competences and activities
…and organized in dif-
ferent levels within the group hierarchy. The group
brought at least eight young women to Denmark for
exploitation in forced prostitution. The citizenships of the
perpetrators and the victims coincided also in this case,
and the offenders received prison sentences ranging from
14 months to 3 years. Most of the offenders were also
expelled from Denmark with a permanent entry ban.
In other cases, like the sophisticated ring operating
between Eastern Europe and Israel described previously,
the traffickers were citizens of the destination country. In
a case from Malta, a Maltese national was convicted for
trafficking victims from the Balkans into the country for
prostitution. In a recent case from Chile, two traffickers
- a Chilean and a citizen of a neighbouring country – were
convicted for having trafficked two women from the same
neighbouring country to Chile for sexual exploitation.
The Argentine authorities reported the conviction of four
women, two local citizens and two citizens of a Caribbean
country, for having trafficked girls from the Caribbean
country to Argentina in a complex scheme that involved
travel across the continent, several border crossings and
exploitation in different night clubs.
The general pattern is not a rule, however. There are also
victims that originate from one country and are exploited
in another by citizens of a third country. The above-men-
tioned Lithuanian group that recruited women from the
Baltic countries to be exploited in other countries was
selling the victims to criminal groups from the Balkans
that operated in Western Europe. These groups had no
citizenship ties with the victims or with the country of
exploitation.
Considering the aggregated data on the citizenships of the
offenders, the profile of the traffickers operating in desti-
nation countries of cross-border trafficking is different
from the profile of the traffickers operating in origin coun-
tries. Origin countries mainly convict local citizens,
whereas destination countries convict both foreign and
local citizens (in different proportions, depending on the
country in question). This is confirmed regardless of the
traffickers’ level of organization.
In the destination countries, convicted traffickers may be
either local citizens or citizens of the origin countries of
the victims they traffic. Focussing only on cross-border
destination countries, there is a statistical correlation
between the citizenships of the persons convicted in
selected destinations and the citizenships of the victims
detected there, so the traffickers and victims come from
the same country.
19
This reinforces the idea that when it comes to cross-border
trafficking, the overall pattern is that trafficking opera-
tions in origin countries - such as recruitment and trans-
portation - are carried out by local citizens, with the
victims often being fellow citizens. In destination coun-
tries, traffickers can be local or foreign citizens; however,
when they are foreigners, they often exploit their fellow
citizens.
As discussed in the analysis of the profiles of the offend-
ers, there are few foreign traffickers detected in more typi-
cal origin countries. This indicates that generally, local
traffickers of destination countries do not physically move
to origin countries to collect victims there. In light of
conviction profiles, this is usually done by local traffickers
of the origin country. On the other hand, traffickers from
origin countries move to the destination countries where
they are then detected by national authorities.
If victims are trafficked by their own compatriots, why
don’t traffickers simply traffic the same victims in their
own country? If, as stated above, domestic and local traf-
ficking require less organization than medium and long-
distance trafficking, why do traffickers bother to exploit
victims in cross-border or even transregional trafficking?
The economic interest of transre-
gional trafficking:
follow the money
Different trafficking operations have one key element in
common: the business around the exploitation of the vic-
tims. With a few exceptions (such as child soldiers,
removal of body parts for rituals and some other forms
that comprise a small share of the total number of vic-
tims), the vast majority of trafficking is aimed at obtaining
economic benefit from the labour and services extorted
from the victims. The ‘loverboy’ who exploits his girlfriend
in sexual exploitation is leveraging his power over her for
19 In Western and Central Europe, the share of the citizenships of the
victims and of the offenders detected between 2010 and 2012 are
correlated (pearsons coeff 0.828; sign 0.000). In Argentina, the same
correlation is stronger (pearsons coeff 0.985; sign 0.000), and also
confirmed in the United Arab Emirates (pearsons coeff 0.748; sign
0.000), .