Aura Burditt, Ontario South West Regional Modern Slavery and Human Trafficking (MSHT) Response Advocate, Ontario Division reported to BPW London mid 2023:

The UN Office on Drugs and Crime has released their latest Global Report on Trafficking in Persons (2022):

• This edition of the Global Report provides a snapshot of the trafficking patterns and flows detected during the COVID-19 pandemic.
• It covers 141 countries and provides an overview of the response to trafficking in persons at global, regional and national levels, by analyzing trafficking cases detected between 2018 and 2021.
• A major focus of this edition of the Report is on trends of detections and convictions that show important changes compared to historical trends since UNODC started to collect data in 2003.
• This latest report shows how the pandemic has increased vulnerabilities, further undercutting capacities to identify victims and bring criminals to justice.

Here’s the main 10 global findings of the report:

• Finding 1– Number of detected victims falls for the first time in 20 years as pandemic limits opportunities and potentially pushes trafficking further underground, while constraining law enforcement capacities to target the crime
• Finding 2– Trafficking for sexual exploitation was less detected during the pandemic
• Finding 3– Victims rely on “self-rescue” as anti-trafficking responses fall short
• Finding 4– Global slowdown in convictions accelerated during the Covid-19 pandemic
• Finding 5 –Increased impunity in home countries resulting in more victims trafficked to more destinations
• Finding 6– War and conflict offer hunting grounds for traffickers
• Finding 7– Climate change is multiplying trafficking risks
• Finding 8– Boys and men account for a greater share of detected victims as new forms of exploitation emerge
• Finding 9– Woman and children suffer greater violence at the hands of traffickers
• Finding 10– More highly organized traffickers exploit more victims, more violently and for longer periods of time