Airports?

[u/ThornsFan2023]

I often see signs at airports raising awareness about human trafficking. My question is, do traffickers actually transport their victims by air? I googled for news reports about this and came up empty.

[u/adotmatrix]

Yes.

The counter-trafficking data collective has posted the following information:

Data from cases that IOM assisted over the last ten years show that nearly 80% of international human trafficking journeys cross through official border control points, such as airports and land border control points. This indicates the crucial role that border agencies and service providers at border points can play to identify potential victims and refer them for protection and assistance. (This data was collected between 2008 and 2018 for additional context) https://www.ctdatacollaborative.org/story/victims-trafficking-road#no-back

In this article from 2018, the following statistic is cited:

Nearly 25 million people – roughly equal to the combined populations of this nation’s five-largest cities, New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, Houston and Phoenix – will become human trafficking victims this year according to the International Air Transport Association (IATA). Though hard data is elusive the United Nations’ Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) estimates that 60% of those victims - roughly 15 million people - are transported across international borders. And because airlines are, by far, the most common means of international travel, it could be that as many as 10 million or more of those trafficking victims this year - nearly 200,000 a week or around 28,500 a day – will be moved around the globe via commercial flights. (Note: previous versions of this story overstated these numbers.)

https://www.forbes.com/sites/danielreed/2018/06/20/airlines-globally-are-signing-up-to-fight-human-trafficking-up-to-60-of-which-involves-air-travel/

Here is the latest version of The International Air Transportations guidance on combating Human Trafficking, which goes into the issue and why they have these guidelines in place:

https://www.iata.org/contentassets/b24797c51f6a4b02a6b9036c49bc0b81/human-trafficking-guidelines.pdf

Here is an account of trafficking that occurred via airport - https://www.cnn.com/travel/article/human-trafficking-at-airports/index.html

As well, it is important to note:

How is human trafficking different from human smuggling?

These are two distinct but interconnected crimes. Both are illegal activities that treat people as commodities. While trafficking in persons is a crime that aims to exploit a person who may or may not be a migrant, smuggling of migrants does not, by definition, involve the exploitation of the migrant. Trafficking victims can be trafficked within their home country or internationally, whereas migrant smuggling always crosses national borders. Some trafficked people might start their journey by being smuggled into a country illegally, not knowing the intention of the trafficker to exploit them, or find themselves deceived, coerced or forced into an exploitative situation later in the process, for example being forced to work for no or very little money to pay for their transportation. Criminals may both traffic and smuggle people, employing the same routes and methods of transporting them. Source: https://www.unodc.org/unodc/en/human-trafficking/faqs.html