Although slavery is commonly thought to be a thing of the past, human traffickers generate hundreds of billions of dollars in profits by trapping millions of people in horrific situations around the world.

Traffickers use violence, threats, deception, debt bondage, and other manipulative tactics to force people to engage in commercial sex or to provide labor or services against their will.

The International Labour Organization estimates that there are:

- 40.3 million victims of human trafficking globally;
- 81% of them are trapped in forced labor;
- 25% of them are children;
- 75% are women and girls.

Source: Polaris Project