Meeting earlier this month, the United Nations issued a worrisome report, stating that human traffickers are targeting out-of-school children worldwide.
According to their report, children make up one-third of discovered trafficking victims, a number that has tripled since 2006. Trafficked girls are usually forced into the sex trade while boys are forced into manual labor.
According to this reporting done by Thomson Reuters:
About 222 million schoolchildren – one in eight pupils – are affected by school closures, according to UNESCO, the U.N.’s cultural agency. The figure hit 1.6 billion in April last year.
“It is particularly alarming that in recent years more and more children are being targeted by traffickers,” UNODC Executive Director Ghada Waly said during a virtual briefing.
“Already targeted and potentially at risk, youth who are denied their right to education will particularly find themselves easier prey for traffickers,” she added.
The poorer the country, the more prevalent the practice of human trafficking, sometimes done in plain sight.
The unfortunate statistic is that prior to the pandemic, numbers were falling:
Child workers had been as high as 246 million in 2000, and by 2019, had fallen to a still alarming 156 million.
An estimated 25 million people worldwide are victims of labour and sex trafficking, according to the United Nations, with concerns growing that more will be affected as support services are halted and efforts to secure justice are hindered.
To read Reuter’s full report, tap here.
Stock Image by Aamir Mohd Khan from Pixabay
