Human trafficking is the exploitation of people for profit through recruiting, transporting, transferring, or harboring them by force, fraud, or deception. Across the globe, one driver of trafficking is consistent: economic vulnerability.
Trafficking is estimated to generate $236 billion annually. Poverty, lack of access to safe work, and financial instability increase the risk of trafficking and re-trafficking.
Without safe options for income, vulnerability persists, trapping individuals and families in cycles of risk and exploitation.
Human trafficking is fueled by generational cycles of poverty and exploitation.
80%
of those experiencing commercial sexual exploitation worldwide are women and girls.
66%
of those forced into early marriage worldwide are women and girls.
64%
of victims in the U.S. are experiencing homelesness when recruited into a trafficking situation.
95%
of sex trafficking victims in North America are female.
