(Vienna) The multiplication of meteorological disasters, which pushes millions of people onto the roads, is today one of the “main causes” of human trafficking, according to a UN report published on Tuesday, also mentioning the risks posed by the war in Ukraine.
“Climate change increases vulnerability to trafficking”, underlines this study by the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), based on the collection of data from 141 countries over the period 2017-2020 and the analysis of 800 court cases.
Over time, “whole regions will become uninhabitable”, which “disproportionately affects” poor communities living mainly from agriculture or fishing.
They find themselves “deprived of their means of subsistence and forced to flee their community”, becoming easy prey for traffickers, explained to the press ahead of publication Fabrizio Sarrica, main author of the text.
In 2021 alone, climate-related disasters caused the internal displacement of more than 23.7 million people, while many others had to move abroad.
The report cites devastating typhoons in the Philippines, or even Bangladesh, which is particularly exposed to cyclones and storms.
In both countries, an increase in cases of trafficking has been observed, with, for example, the organization of “large recruitment campaigns” to trap the poorest in forced labour.
Ghana, victim of droughts and floods, and the Caribbean region, subject to hurricanes and rising sea levels, are also on the front line.
Wars and pandemic
Another breeding ground for trafficking is armed conflict. If Africa is by far the most affected continent, the UN body points to a potentially “dangerous” situation in Ukraine, while welcoming the measures taken by the countries of the European Union to welcome and protect the millions of refugees.
“It is a challenge to know how to manage the trafficking generated by war and instability,” said the head of the human trafficking and migrant smuggling section at UNODC, Ilias Chatzis, interviewed by AFP.
“With regard to Ukraine, for example, we must not only help the neighboring countries, but also increase our support for the authorities of the country”, weakened by the war effort.
For the first time since data collection in 2003, which to date has brought together information on more than 450,000 people, the number of victims recorded worldwide fell in 2020 (-11% over one year).
The COVID-19 pandemic “has limited the ability to detect cases”, especially in low-income countries in Asia, Latin America and Africa, the report explains.
Faced with the closure of places open to the public (bars, nightclubs, etc.) due to health restrictions, certain forms of trafficking, in particular sexual exploitation, have also moved to “less visible and even less safe places”.