(MENAFN- Kuwait News Agency (KUNA)) VIENNA, Dec 11 (KUNA) -- A new report from the United Nations (UN) warned of a sharp rise in human trafficking cases, particularly involving children, forced labor, and criminal exploitation.
The increase is attributed to escalating poverty, conflicts, and climate-related disasters, which heighten vulnerability to sexual exploitation, according to the report, released by the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC).
It analyzed human trafficking trends across 156 countries, focusing on patterns emerging after the COVID-19 pandemic, revealing a 25 percent increase in detected trafficking victims globally in 2022 compared to pre-pandemic levels in 2019.
Key findings include a 47 percent rise in detected victims of forced labor between 2019 and 2022, a 31 percent increase in children identified as trafficking victims in 2022 compared to 2019, including a 38 percent rise in female child victims.
More male victims have been detected in areas where increasing numbers of unaccompanied and separated children had been recorded, and the report also highlighted a rise in child trafficking in high-income countries, often involving sexual exploitation of girls.
UNODC Executive Director Ghada Waly stated that with worsening conflicts, climate disasters, and global crises, the vulnerability of individuals has grown, leading to an increase in detected trafficking victims, particularly children, who now represent 38 percent of all victims.
Waly added that traffickers increasingly exploit people for forced labor, including involvement in online fraud schemes, while women and girls face heightened risks of sexual exploitation and violence.
She called for stronger criminal justice responses to hold top-level perpetrators accountable, cross-border cooperation to rescue victims, and comprehensive support for survivors.
The report also revealed that women and girls constituted 61 percent of all detected victims globally in 2022, with 60 percent of identified girls trafficked for sexual exploitation, and around 45 percent of trafficked boys were exploited for forced labor, while 47 percent faced other forms of exploitation, including criminal activities and begging.
The report also included a chapter on Africa, a region often overlooked in trafficking studies due to the difficulty of obtaining data, UNODC collaborated with field offices and partners, including the International Organization for Migration, the Statistics Division of the African Union Commission, and regional authorities to gather comprehensive data.
The report showed African victims represented the largest share of detected trafficking cases, with individuals from 162 nationalities trafficked to 128 countries in 2022, most of those victims were trafficked within the continent, driven by displacement, instability, and climate change, with children particularly vulnerable to forced labor, sexual exploitation, and begging.
The report offered policy recommendations to combat all forms of trafficking, including improved victim identification and protection.
The 2024 edition of the annual report is the most comprehensive since its first release in 2009, covering 156 countries across all regions. (end)
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