Numbers of Prosecutions of Human Trafficking Crimes Alarming

he Number of Prosecutions of Human Traffickers is Alarmingly Low

• According to the 2017 State Department Trafficking in Persons (TIP) report, there were only 14,894 prosecutions and 9,071 convictions for trafficking globally in 2016.
  • 1,251 prosecutions, 1,119 convictions and the identification of 18,296 victims occurred in Africa
  • 2,137 prosecutions, 1,953 convictions and the identification of 9,989 victims occurred in East Asia & the Pacific 
  • 2,703 prosecutions, 1,673 convictions, and the identification of 11,416 victims occurred in Europe  
  • 996 prosecutions, 1,187 convictions, and the identification of 3,292 victims occurred in the Near East 
  • 6,297 prosecutions, 2,193 convictions, and the identification of 14,706 victims occurred in South & Central Asia
  • 1,513 prosecutions, 946 convictions, and the identification of 8,821 victims occurred in the Western Hemisphere  
• Of the estimated 16 million forced labor victims worldwide, only 1,038 cases of forced labor were prosecuted globally in 2016, according to the US Department of State.
• In 2016, the Department of Justice convicted a total of 439 human traffickers, up from 297 in 2015 and 184 in 2014.