Page 42
sentenced to eight years imprisonment for several individual charges including human trafficking b According to the cases collected for the Global Report, Eastern Europe, South-Eastern Europe, South America, Central America and North America all reported similar cases. c Case material provided by Belarus, Pervomaisky District Court, Minsk. Two perpetrators were, respectively, sentenced to imprisonment for three years and payment of a fine of $3,730, and imprisonment for two years and six months and payment of a fine of $2,485. d Case material provided by Israel, Haifa District Court. The female perpetrator was sentenced to 20 months in prison, fine and forfeiture of cash. The male perpetrator was sentenced to six months imprisonment to be served in community service and a fine. e Case material provided by Australia, County Court of Victoria. The offender was sentenced to 22 years’ imprisonment; Case material provided by Georgia, Tbilisi City court, convictions for sentences between 11 and 14 years of imprisonments were reported in this case. f Case material provided by Thailand, Court Region 5. The perpetrator was sentenced to 4 years imprisonment. Gauging the criminal income in trafficking in persons cases As part of the questionnaire used to gather data for the biennial Global Report on Trafficking in Persons, UNODC asks countries to submit brief descriptions of cases of trafficking that have been prosecuted in their jurisdiction in recent years. For the present edition, some 180 cases were received from more than 40 countries. Of these, some 17 cases from 13 different countries contained specific information about the traffickers’ income from the crime. In addition, a few cases from the data collection for the 2016 edition were also considered. None of the cases tackled the costs incurred by traffickers, which means that it is not possible to establish the criminal profits. The case with by far the largest reported criminal income dealt with trafficking for organ removal. It was the only case involving this form of exploitation. A senior physician working in a public hospital in a Central American country was convicted of this form of trafficking, having recruited an organ donor living in deep poverty who received a payment of US$10,000. The organ was removed from the victim and then transplanted into a recipient – from a Western European country - for a fee of $200,000. This trafficker was a qualified medical doctor and had access to a private clinic where the surgeries could be carried out. The requirements in terms of skills and equipment rule this particular form of trafficking out for most potential traffickers. It is nonetheless potentially very lucrative, considering the long waiting lists for organ transplants in many countries. Most of the cases reported to UNODC dealt with trafficking for sexual exploitation. In all these cases, the traffickers controlled the victims and forced them to hand over either all or a significant portion of their profits. They used other methods as well, such as imposing large ‘debts’ when the victims had travelled to their place of exploitation, extracting ‘fines’ for a range of insignificant or invented misconduct, and/or obliging women engaging in commercial sex in the streets to pay a daily fee for the ‘right’ to occupy a particular location. The largest income is reported from highly developed countries. In one Western European country, customers had to pay a minimum of €50 for a half-hour erotic massage and €130 for intercourse. A Southern European country reports a price of €120 for half an hour, including intercourse. Such prices have the potential to generate large incomes for traffickers. In a Central European country, for example, a trafficker earned at least €7,000 from forcing one victim into involvement in commercial sex for five weeks. GLOTiP_2018_BOOK.indb 39 17/12/2018 19:49:15 40 GLOBAL REPORT ON TRAFFICKING IN PERSONS 2018 In other parts of the world, however, the potential income of commercial sex is lower. In a country in South Caucasus and a country in Central America, the price for intercourse is reported to range between $20 and $25. Even if the victim is forced to service four customers per night, seven days a week, and assuming the traffickers confiscate the entire payments, in one week, the criminal income would amount to a maximum of $630. The profit potential varies considerably, seemingly in line with the level of development of the country where the exploitation takes place. Another form of trafficking that illustrates the variations in criminal income is trafficking for begging. In Eastern Europe and Central Asia, three cases described a daily criminal income per victim of some US$8-10 per day, whereas in a case from Western and Southern Europe, a victim trafficked for begging was forced to earn some €300-500 per day for the traffickers. Another case from Western and Southern Europe involved a disabled victim who was first exploited in a country in South-Eastern Europe. There, the forced begging brought income of approximately €150 per day that the traffickers confiscated. After about a month, the victim was moved to a Western European country, where the daily long hours of begging generated income of €300-1,000 per day for the traffickers.The evidence from these cases can only provide a rough indication of the potential criminal income from trafficking for a few forms of exploitation in some areas. The information presented in the map is drawn from a small sample of cases which is not representative of all trafficking cases in the respective areas. Nonetheless, the information illustrates that the criminal income from trafficking in persons varies significantly in terms of the forms of exploitation as well as the location where the exploitation takes place. Sexual exploitation Organ removal Begging Forced crime (stealing) Illegal adoption Sale of women (purpose not stated) East Asia and the Pacific Central America and the Caribbean North America Western and Southern Europe Eastern Europe and Central Asia Central and SouthEastern Europe 1 case: $390 per day 1 case: $5 per act $190,000 per act 3 cases: €25-65 per act €1,000 per day $240 per day 2 cases: €300-500 per day €300-1,000 per day €750 per day 2 cases: € 200 per day $150 per day 2 cases: $7-21 per act $14 per act 3 cases: $9 per day $8 per day $10 per day $2,200 per act 3 cases: $1,600 per act $2,800 per act $12,400 per act Source: Based on 17 criminal cases reported by 13 countries to UNODC Criminal income earned from the exploitation of trafficking victims, by subregion and by type of exploitation, USD $ or Euro € per victim per day or per act. GLOTiP_2018_BOOK.indb 40 17/12/2018 19:49:15 41 Global Overview I of being exploited abroad, but detected before leaving the country. The increasing detection of domestic victims could also be explained in terms of an increased awareness among relevant authorities about domestic trafficking, or in terms of a broadening jurisprudence. National authorities may be prosecuting under the offence of trafficking in persons some cases, which would have been previously recorded under other criminal offences, such as pandering or exploitative labour conditions. The share of detected domestic victims is very high compared to foreign victims in nearly all areas of the world, excluding Western and Central Europe, the Middle East Trafficking flows The aggregated global figure shows that most detected trafficking victims globally are citizens of the countries where they are detected. In 2016, more than half of the victims whose citizenships were reported were detected in their own countries. This pattern, however, changes in the different regions considered. A relevant share of the detected victims is trafficked within the same region, with most of these victims trafficked within the same subregion (for example, within North American countries, or within sub-Saharan Africa). Less than one victim out of every ten detected in 2016 were trafficked transregionally. For example, victims were trafficked from South Asia to the Middle East, or from East Asia to Western and Southern Europe. Since 2010, there has been a significant and steady increase in the share of victims detected within their own country’s borders. The share of identified domestic victims has more than doubled over the last few years, from 27 per cent to 58 per cent in 2016. This marked increase could reflect an increased volume of people trafficked in their own countries. In countries characterized to be more typically destinations of cross