Trapped behind the scam — the victims of human trafficking

The UN’s World Day Against Trafficking in Persons, which is observed every year on July 30, should be viewed as a critical global platform for raising awareness on one of the most egregious violations of human rights in the modern era.
This important day, established by the General Assembly in 2013, ought to shed light on three issues: the plight of victims, the promotion of their rights, and efforts to galvanize international cooperation in combating this transnational crime.
The theme this year is “Trapped Behind the Scam,” which aims to highlight the insidious evolution of trafficking into systematic and forced criminality. This has become particularly relevant in relation to fraudulent online operations orchestrated by transnational organized crime networks, in which the exploitation of people intersects and intertwines with other issues including cybercrime, financial fraud and corruption.
Simply put, human trafficking is defined as the recruitment, transportation, transfer, harboring or receipt of persons through threat, force, coercion, abduction, fraud, deception, abuse of power, or even vulnerability, for the purpose of exploitation. This issue persists as a shadow economy that is thriving amid global inequalities.
International Labour Organization estimates indicate that about 49.6 million people are trapped in modern slavery on any given day, 27.6 million of them in forced labor and 22 million in forced marriage.
The UN Office on Drugs and Crime’s most recent Global Report on Trafficking in Persons, published in December 2024, revealed a 25 percent increase in trafficking. Sexual exploitation accounted for about 79 percent of cases involving women and girls, while children constituted nearly 20 percent globally.
Recent data from the International Organization for Migration further highlights the scale of the problem. It identified 125,000 trafficking victims worldwide, including nearly 30,000 children, though it is suspected that underreporting means the true figure is substantially higher.
Geographically speaking, the crisis is not evenly distributed. For example, Sub-Saharan Africa has experienced rapid increases for a number of reasons, including instability, economic disparities, migration, conflict and displacement.
Across the world, some countries and agencies are taking important steps to effectively and adequately confront this crisis. For example, the International Organization for Migration, in partnership with Saudi Arabia’s National Committee to Combat Human Trafficking and the UN Office on Drugs and Crime, launched a National Referral Mechanism that established best practices and clear procedures for identifying, referring, protecting and assisting the victims of human trafficking. The mechanism includes coordinated pathways for handling trafficking cases, and strengthens collaboration among national authorities and stakeholders.
Globally, some proactive nations have also set their own benchmarks. The US, for instance, has played a leading role through it’s annual Trafficking in Persons Report, bilateral initiatives, and support for prosecutions and victim services worldwide. European countries are also demonstrating higher detection and conviction rates thanks to robust legislation. 

Some countries are taking important steps to effectively confront the crisis.

Dr. Majid Rafizadeh

In Africa, nations such as Nigeria, Kenya and South Africa have established task forces and awareness campaigns, in alignment with the African Union’s Continental Strategy. Mexico’s comprehensive laws and bilateral cooperation with the US also represent regional progress. In addition, international frameworks such as the UN’s Blue Heart Campaign and Interpol operations facilitate data sharing.
Effective responses ought to rely on four critical pillars: prevention, protection, prosecution and partnership. The protection of victims requires shelters, legal aid, psychological counseling and education.
Prevention requires efforts to address the root causes of the problem, which generally include poverty, gender inequality, conflict or climate displacements. Interestingly, artificial intelligence is emerging as a potent tool in this struggle, because it can offer more methods for detection, disruption and prevention at a large scale.
This is usually accomplished through the use of machine-learning algorithms that can analyze vast datasets, encompassing social media content, financial transactions and travel patterns, to identify anomalies that point toward trafficking networks and unusual migration flows or recruitment patterns, for example.
Some partnerships between tech firms, nongovernmental organizations and governments have resulted in successes in terms of disrupting online scams and identifying the victims of “trafficking for forced criminality,” aligning with this year’s theme for World Day Against Trafficking in Persons.
But we should also be careful to follow the ethical path of respect for data privacy, and to avoid running the risk of over-surveillance.
In a nutshell, as the international community observes this year’s day devoted to the fight against human trafficking, it is critical that we raise awareness of the issue and continue to combat one of the most pervasive violations of human rights in the world.
Unfortunately, human trafficking remains a global crisis that transcends national borders. While some progress is evident in growing numbers of detections, convictions and policy reforms, more work needs to be done to dismantle the trafficking networks.
Effective efforts to address this crime require close partnerships among governments, international organizations, nongovernmental organizations, law-enforcement agencies and technology companies.
The more effectively we can harness the power of technological innovations, strengthen cross-border intelligence sharing and increase public awareness about this issue, the better able we will be to detect and dismantle organized criminal networks.
We need to remember the four critical pillars — prevention, protection, prosecution and partnership — to better protect the victims and prevent future exploitation.

• Dr. Majid Rafizadeh is a Harvard-educated Iranian American political scientist.
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