VIENNA: Global efforts to stop the multi-billion-dollar business of trafficking in people are being hampered by perceptions that it is a soft crime unlikely to be punished, the head of the UN drugs and crime office told Reuters.

Of the 159 countries who have ratified a 2000 UN protocol to prevent and combat such trafficking, 15 did not record a single conviction between 2010 and 2012, compared with 16 countries between 2007 and 2010, he said.

“That, of course, could not be considered as a success,” said Yury Fedotov, executive director of the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime. “People should understand that people-trafficking is a serious crime.” Another 25 countries recorded 10 or fewer convictions in 2010-12, making conviction rates for trafficking as rare as those for homicides in Iceland or kidnappings in Norway, the United Nations says.

“So far, it has been considered by criminals as a safer criminal activity, compared to illicit arms or illicit drugs,” Fedotov said. “What is important is not the harshness of the punishment but the perception that punishment is unavoidable.” Around 21 million people are victims of forced labor, according to the International Labour Organization — exploited for prostitution, domestic work, agriculture, petty crime or even organ transplantation.

The ILO estimates that forced labor generates $150 billion in profits for the private sector alone, two-thirds from commercial sexual exploitation.