Sex Trafficking Fact Sheet
Here is a fact sheet on Sex trafficking provided by the International Justice Mission. Learn more about injustice around the world and what IJM is doing to help. Once you know, your life will be changed.
Sex trafficking is the recruitment, harboring, provision or obtaining of a person in order that a commercial sex act can be induced, often by force, fraud or coercion. Traffickers sell the individuals to make a profit in what has become a multi-billion dollar enterprise. Sex trafficking often consists of in the movement of persons across or within borders, but may not entail actual physical displacement.
Trafficked women and girls are often tricked with the promise of a good job. Some are kidnapped and drugged, only to find upon waking that they are trapped in a brothel and forced to provide sex to customers. In some instances, these victims are sold by family members in order to pay medical bills or family debts. Police complicity often leaves these girls with no one to turn to for help.
The Facts
- Of the 600,000 – 800,000 people trafficked across international borders every year, 80 percent are female, and 70 percent of these women and girls are trafficked for sexual exploitation (U.S. State Department).
- In Cambodia, known for its $511 million-per-year sex trade, an estimated 50,000 to 55,000 women and girls are held in prostitution. In the city of Phnom Penh with a population of 1 million, there are between 10,000 and 20,000 prostitutes, and 35% are younger than 18 years old (Canada’s Future Group).
- It is estimated that 200,000 – 300,000 women and children are trafficked for prostitution into Thailand each year (International Labor Organization).
- Every year, 35,000 women are trafficked out of Colombia for the sex trade with estimated profits of $500 million (Protection Project).
- Worldwide, human trafficking generates about $9.5 billion dollars each year (Trafficking in Persons Report, 2005).
What IJM does
IJM investigators spend thousands of hours infiltrating brothels and uncovering the world of sexual exploitation. IJM staff then works with local authorities to lead raids and rescue victims from this horrific nightmare, placing them in safe homes where they receive aftercare and begin new lives of freedom. IJM lawyers work to secure the conviction and sentencing of brothel keepers and other perpetrators involved in sex trafficking. These convictions help to deter future perpetrators and change the system that traffics women and girls for sexual exploitation.
When Manna* was 14, she ran away from her abusive brother and sought refuge with a woman who promised her a job selling fabric. The woman offered Manna a place to stay for the night but, when Manna woke up the next morning, she found herself in a brothel, forced to sell her body instead of fabric. When Manna refused customers, the brothel keeper pulled her hair, punched her and beat her repeatedly until she gave in to the men who had come to rape her. After two years, Manna and three other young girls were rescued from the brothel by IJM investigators and local authorities. Manna now lives in freedom in an aftercare home, while IJM legal casework led to the conviction and sentencing of her brothel keeper to 5 years of rigorous imprisonment.
