Combating trafficking in persons: a call to action for global health professionals

Trafficking in persons—also known as modern slavery—is a crime that undermines the most basic rights of an individual. Despite more than a decade of international and domestic laws against it, human trafficking affects every country in the world, including the United States. As global awareness of human trafficking has grown, efforts to combat it have also increased. An Internet search using the term “human trafficking” yielded more than 32 million results in seconds. Awareness of the impact of this crime on victims and of its various manifestations has also evolved. Victims have been found in, and freed from, slave-like conditions in nearly every industry: agriculture, manufacturing, construction, hospitality, health care, janitorial services, mining, fishing, domestic service, as well as commercial sex. The scale of the problem has prompted professionals and advocates to embrace the notion that all sectors must be equipped with the knowledge and relevant skills to contribute to ending modern slavery.

Social science experts estimate there are 20.9 million¹ to 29.8 million² people around the world living in servitude. A report from the International Labour Organization (ILO) provided additional information about the victims of human trafficking¹:

• Of the total number of 20.9 million victims, 18.7 million (90%) are exploited in the private economy by individuals or enterprises; the remaining 2.2 million are in state-imposed forms of forced labor. Of those exploited in the private economy, 4.5 million (22% of the total number) …