Child trafficking: Global estimates

The following facts are from UNICEF:

• According to UNICEF, approximately 1.2 million children are trafficked every year.
• The International Labour Organization (ILO) estimates that there are 12.3 million people enslaved in forced labor, bonded labor, forced child labor, sexual servitude, and involuntary servitude at any given time.
• Child trafficking is considered a problem in 70 per cent of the countries in West and Central Africa, and in 33 per cent of countries in East and Southern Africa.*
• An estimated 1,000 to 1,500 Guatemalan babies and children are trafficked each year for adoption in North America and Europe.
• Girls as young as 13 (mainly from Asia and eastern Europe) are trafficked as "mail order brides". In most cases, these girls and women are powerless, isolated and at great risk of violence.
• Children from Burkina Faso, Ghana, Mali and Togo are trafficked to Cameroon, Cote d'Ivoire, Gabon and Nigeria. Children are trafficked both in and out of Benin and Nigeria. Some children are sent as far away as the Middle East and Europe.

*UNICEF Innocenti Research Centre Trafficking in Human Beings, Especially Women and Children, in Africa, 2003

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