According to a recent UN report, women continue to make up the majority of trafficking victims in South Asia.
However, compared to other years, more men were identified as trafficking victims in the area in 2020, according to the UN Office of Drugs and Crime study (UNODC).
Even while pandemics and catastrophes made populations more vulnerable to trafficking, the “Global Report on Trafficking in Persons 2022” also revealed a drop in the crime.
In 2020, there were 11% fewer victims worldwide than there were in 2019.
Over the same time period, the number of convictions for trafficking offences decreased by 27 percent as well, strengthening the downward trend that UNODC has been tracking since 2017.
South Asia (by 56%), Central America and the Caribbean (by 54%), and South America all had declines (46pc).
The report also stated that both men and women were trafficked in South Asia for the purposes of forced labour, sexual exploitation, and to a lesser extent, forced marriage.
