Estimates of victims vary widely according to the definitions used by the institutions carrying out the research and also due to the clandestine nature of the phenomenon.

• 12.3 million victims of forced labor are estimated in the world today, of whom some 2.45 million are trafficked, according to the ILO. Of these, most are trafficked into forced labor for commercial sexual exploitation, while one third are trafficked for other economic exploitation. Over half of the persons subject to forced economic exploitation, and almost all those subject to forced commercial sexual exploitation, are women.

• 700,000 to 2 million are trafficked across international borders annually, an estimate advanced by the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA).

• The US Department of State has estimated 600,000 to 800,000 men, women, and children are trafficked across international borders each year; approximately 80% are women and girls.

• UNICEF reports that across the world, there are over one million children entering the sex trade every year and that approximately 30 million children have lost their childhood through sexual exploitation, over the past 30 years.

VULNERABILITY OF WOMEN AND CHILDREN

• Recent UN statistics show that women make up two-thirds of the 2.5 billion poor living on less than US$ 2 a day.

• Of the world’s illiterate,women come up to 66% and girls represent the majority in the 121 million out of school children, globally.

• Women’s share in managerial and administrative occupations remains minimal with 33% in industrialized states, 15% in Africa, and 13% in Asia and the Pacific.

• UNICEF believes the most vulnerable children are orphans, HIV/AIDS- affected children, street children, refugees and those displaced by war.

• Lack of proper birth registration makes children more vulnerable to being trafficked.