Human Trafficking
Human trafficking often begins with an offer a person cannot refuse, like a good job or the chance to get married and create an independent life. But instead of what was promised, they find themselves trafficked and exploited.
Most victims (71%) are women and girls, according to global estimates. The most common forms of human trafficking are commercial sexual exploitation, forced labor, forced scamming, and forced marriage (including child marriage.)
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.
ACT
The trafficker must do one of the following to people:
Recruit
Transport
Transfer
Harbor
Receive
MEANS
Using one or more of these methods:
Human Trafficking
PURPOSE:
For exploitation
Victims are forced to work without pay or with an inadequate salary, living in fear of violence and often in inhumane conditions.
Human trafficking and exploitation is one of the fastest-growing criminal industries in the world that generates more than $150 billion USD a year.
Human trafficking is not a modern invention. Forced labor, sexual exploitation, and the buying and selling of people have existed across cultures and centuries.
What changed in the modern period was not the existence of exploitation but the legal framework built to address it. The 20th century saw the first serious international efforts to name and prohibit trafficking, including the 1949 UN Convention for the Suppression of the Traffic in Persons, followed decades later by the landmark Palermo Protocol in 2000, which was the first binding international agreement to define human trafficking, require criminalization, and establish protections for survivors.
The Palermo Protocol gave governments a common language and legal obligation, but it did not end trafficking. The years since since 2000 have demonstrated how deeply embedded exploitation is in the global economic systems most of us participate in regularly.
Today, human trafficking is shaped by globalization, migration, conflict, and digital technology. Traffickers recruit online, and people move across borders with ease. Traffickers exploit gaps in legal protection for migrants and informal workers.
Hagar began working with survivors in Cambodia in 1994 in the aftermath of the Khmer Rouge, a context of mass displacement, poverty, and broken systems that made trafficking easy.
Human trafficking happens everywhere, no country or region of the world is immune. The Global Slavery Index documents modern slavery and human trafficking in every country on earth, including every wealthy Western nation.
The highest absolute numbers are in Asia and the Pacific. Cambodia, Vietnam, Thailand, and Myanmar are among the regions where trafficking is most prevalent, driven by poverty, displacement, limited legal protections for migrant workers, and demand from both regional and international markets. These are the countries where Hagar works.
Human trafficking in the United States
Human trafficking does not just happen “over there.” The Polaris Project’s National Human Trafficking Hotline receives tens of thousands of reports every year from across the United States. Trafficking has been documented in all 50 states in in agriculture, domestic work, hospitality, construction, and commercial sex work. It occurs in rural areas, in suburbs, and in major cities.
Supply chains, demand for cheap goods and labour, and the movement of people across borders in search of safety or work — these connect the United States directly to the places where trafficking is most severe.
Human trafficking in global supply chains
Forced labour is the most common form of human trafficking globally — and much of it is embedded in the production of everyday goods. Clothing, electronics, seafood, cocoa, cotton are all industries with documented histories of forced and trafficked labor at various points in their supply chains.
Consumer awareness and corporate accountability both matter.
Human trafficking is not always easy to recognize. But there are patterns, and knowing them matters. Whether you are a teacher, healthcare worker, hotel employee, parent, or someone paying attention – knowing the signs can help free people from human trafficking.
Look for clusters of indicators, and trust your instincts.
Signs in a person
Signs in a situation
What to do if you suspect trafficking
Do not attempt to intervene directly — this can be dangerous for both you and the potential survivor.
Online: Report suspected online trafficking to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children’s CyberTipline at missingkids.org.
Prevention is key and essential. Effective prevention operates at three levels: individual awareness, community resilience and systemic change.
Individual Awareness
Understanding how trafficking works — how people are recruited, what vulnerability looks like, what the warning signs are — reduces the risk for individuals and their families. This is especially true for the populations most targeted: young women and girls, people in economic hardship, migrants, and those in unstable living situations.
In Hagar’s program communities, prevention education is delivered through schools, community groups, and faith communities. We focus on practical knowledge: how to recognize a suspicious offer, who to tell, where to go for help. Simple information saves lives.
Community Resilience
Traffickers target isolation and desperation. Communities with strong social networks, economic alternatives, and trusted institutions are harder to exploit.
Hagar’s prevention work includes economic empowerment programs for vulnerable families. Poverty is one of the most powerful risk factors for trafficking. When a family has economic options, the false promise of a good job overseas becomes less compelling. It also includes community-based safe reporting mechanisms so that people can flag suspicious activity without fear.
Systemic Change
Long-term prevention requires systems that protect the most vulnerable: legal protections for migrant workers, birth registration so children have legal identity, anti-corruption efforts in law enforcement, and accountability in global supply chains.
Hagar advocates at policy levels in the countries where we work, supporting governments to strengthen the systems that traffickers exploit. This is slower work than direct survivor care — but without it, the flow of people into exploitation continues.
Download Hagar’s free Human Trafficking Action Guide with practical tools for awareness, prevention, and supporting survivors.
Hagar is a global non-profit organization that specializes in providing comprehensive survivor care and justice for exploited people.
We work with survivors, those at risk, and communities where exploitation takes root. Because lasting change takes time, we stay for the whole journey through restoration, justice and prevention.
50 million people are trafficked and enslaved. Fewer than 1 in 10 will receive the care and support they need to heal and rebuild their lives. Hagar is on a mission to change that – one survivor at a time, for as long as it takes. Your gift makes the long road of recovery possible.
Forced labor is the most common form of human trafficking globally, accounting for the majority of cases according to the International Labour Organization. Victims are coerced or deceived into working under threat of violence, debt bondage, or other forms of control. Sexual exploitation is the second most common form, and the most commonly identified by law enforcement.
Common warning signs include: a person who seems fearful or anxious, especially around a specific individual; someone who cannot speak freely or appears coached; a person with no control over their own ID or travel documents; signs of physical abuse or malnourishment; and a minor who appears to be engaged in commercial sex. No single sign is definitive — look for clusters of indicators. If you suspect trafficking in the United States, call the National Human Trafficking Hotline: 1-888-373-7888.
According to the Global Slavery Index (Walk Free Foundation, 2023), approximately 50 million people worldwide are living in modern slavery, which includes human trafficking. Of these, around 27.6 million are in forced labour and 6.3 million are in forced commercial sexual exploitation. Women and girls make up 71% of all trafficking survivors.
Human trafficking and modern slavery are closely related terms that often overlap. Modern slavery is the broader term, referring to all situations where people are exploited and cannot leave due to coercion, threats, or deception. Human trafficking specifically refers to the act of recruiting, transporting, or receiving people for the purpose of exploitation — it is one form of modern slavery. Both terms describe the same fundamental violation of a person’s freedom and dignity.
Survivors of human trafficking frequently experience complex trauma, including post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), depression, anxiety, and physical health consequences from abuse and neglect. Recovery requires long-term, trauma-informed support — including counseling, legal advocacy, safe housing, and vocational training. Without sustained support, survivors face a significantly elevated risk of re-exploitation. Hagar provides comprehensive care to survivors across Southeast Asia for as long as recovery requires.
There are several meaningful ways to help:
No. Human smuggling involves illegally moving a person across a border — it is a crime against immigration law. Human trafficking involves exploiting a person through force, fraud, or coercion for labor or commercial sex — it is a crime against the person. A smuggled person may become a trafficking survivor if they are then exploited, but the two are distinct crimes. Trafficking can also occur entirely within a single country and does not require movement across borders.
