What is Human Trafficking?

Human Trafficking is defined by the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) as:

“The recruitment, transportation, transfer, harbouring or receipt of people through force, fraud or deception, with the aim of exploiting them for profit.”

Human trafficking consists of three core elements – the act, the means and the purpose.

Physical and sexual abuse, blackmail, emotional manipulation, and the removal of official documents are used by traffickers to control their victims. Exploitation can take place in a victim’s home country, during migration or in a foreign country.

Human trafficking has many forms. These include exploitation in the sex, entertainment and hospitality industries, and as domestic workers or in forced marriages. Victims are forced to work in factories, on construction sites or in the agricultural sector without pay or with an inadequate salary, living in fear of violence and often in inhumane conditions.

The practice of acquiring people and exploiting them is believed to be the fastest growing criminal industry in the world.

Human trafficking happens in every region of the globe. While it does impact men, 7 out of 10 victims are women and girls (UNODC). Often human traffickers will target either migrants OR people from poor communities and whose economic situation makes them more vulnerable.

The profits made from the expoitation of others through human trafficking is estimated to be $150 billion USD a year (about £130 billion).

Hagar and Human Trafficking

Sadly, those who work in our Program Offices hear the stories of exploitation on too regular a basis. Some are promised good jobs in China, but arrive and are instead forced into marriage. Some are forced into domestic servitude with little or no pay and suffer regular abuse. Others are trafficked into sexual slavery, working in brothels day after day.

The stories and circumstances may vary, but there is one thing Hagar staff see in all survivors of trafficking and that is severe trauma. The experience of being trafficked and exploited by others is deeply impacting for all survivors and often a client will arrive at Hagar suicidal, devoid of hope and/or deeply depressed.

Hagar works tirelessly to see our clients overcome their trauma and to be able to live transformed, healed lives.

Read some of our ‘Stories of Hope. These tell of how clients have overcome their exploitation and now have hope and happiness.