The Rise of Human Trafficking: in the Czech Republic and Around the World
Published: Jan 14, 2025 Reading time: 7 minutes
Human trafficking, a form of modern-day slavery, is among the fastest-growing type of transnational organised crime. Tens of millions of people fall victim to this practice each year, with the illicit proceeds estimated to reach hundreds of billions of US dollars. Yet this is not only a problem in low-income countries– it is a growing threat all around the EU, including the Czech Republic.
Many inaccurate misconceptions about human trafficking persist in society. One of the most common is the confusion between human trafficking and smuggling. Similarly widespread is the Hollywood-fuelled image of trafficking always involving violent kidnapping.
This article aims to set the record straight on at least some of these misconceptions. It uses interactive charts and maps to illustrate the true extent of the problem and specific forms that human trafficking takes.
What human trafficking is (and what it's not)
The internationally recognised definition of human trafficking emerged relatively recently. While the United Nations made an initial attempt to define anti-trafficking shortly after World War II, those early efforts failed to gain traction. The breakthrough came in 2000 with the adoption of the Palermo Protocol, supplementing the UN Convention against Transnational Organized Crime. Under the Protocol, human trafficking means:
There are three specific elements to be highlighted in the above definition: recruitment, transfer, and exploitation.
It is worth noting that the transfer of the victim can but doesn’t have it take place across international borders. From a legal perspective, the transfer can occur between regions, cities, and villages. Theoretically, it could even take place from one side of the street to the other.
This is where human trafficking fundamentally differs from human smuggling. The key differences lie in the nature of the exploitation involved. They are briefly summarised in the following table:
The key distinction between trafficking and smuggling lies in the use of force or coercion. Migrants who employ the services of smugglers typically do so of their own free will, facing no compulsion throughout their journey. The situation is different for victims of human trafficking. While they do not always experience outright abduction or physical force, their circumstances invariably involve some form of coercion, deceit, or the exploitation of their vulnerability.
In practice, coercion can take a variety of forms. The perpetrators may isolate their victims, subject them to constant surveillance, threaten them with violence against their relatives, or humiliate them in various ways. Perpetrators often employ a tactic of combining coercion and emotional bonding, which can be especially effective when targeting child victims.
In reality, the line between human trafficking and human smuggling is often blurred and porous. For example, migrants who incur debt while being smuggled across the border are often held by smugglers until a family member pays the debt owed. In addition, border crossings often expose migrants to physical and sexual violence.
The most common forms of human trafficking
The two most common forms of trafficking are sexual exploitation and forced labour. These two types of trafficking dominate the landscape, as evidenced by the latest data on the situation in the European Union:
Other forms of trafficking, although globally less pervasive, are still common in certain regions. These include forced marriage, involuntary domestic servitude, and various forms of labour and sexual exploitation of children, such as the use of child soldiers.
Trafficking can also lead to a specific type of result: slavery. The widespread phenomenon known as “debt bondage” is closely related. However, some experts argue that the common label of the entire human trafficking industry as “modern-day slavery” is overly simplistic.
A common feature of all forms of trafficking is that they target vulnerable groups. In general, perpetrators target people who, for various reasons, struggle to meet their fundamental needs, from food and security to social acceptance and a sense of belonging (as outlined in Maslow's famous hierarchy of needs). These vulnerable people readily become dependent on others.
In reality, victims of human trafficking are often undocumented migrants, people displaced by conflict or natural disasters, members of LGBTQ+ communities, and those from marginalized or impoverished backgrounds. Women are disproportionately impacted as victims of this exploitation.
The global scope of human trafficking
The exact size of human trafficking remains largely unknown. Due to the hidden nature of this illegal activity, obtaining reliable statistical data on human trafficking is extremely challenging, as is the case with any form of irregular migration. The data available – some of which are presented below – represent expert estimates only.
Nevertheless, experts generally agree that human trafficking has been on the rise in recent years and even decades. The rise in human trafficking and organised crime as such can be attributed to the process of globalisation after the end of the Cold War. It has fuelled a surge in demand for cheap labour, widened the divide between the wealthy and the impoverished, and sparked a tourism boom – which, in turn, led to a rise in the sex trade.
The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) describes human trafficking as the fastest growing criminal industry in the world. This rapid expansion is fuelled by the activity’s profitability for perpetrators and the low risk of detection and prosecution.
According to the latest estimates from the International Labour Organization (ILO), 28 million people globally are trapped in forced labour or sexual exploitation.
About 70% of the victims are women. Children account for roughly one quarter of the victims.
The ILO estimates that global profits grew from $172 billion to $236 billion between 2014 and 2024.
A look at the world around us: a hundred ways of trafficking
The latest Trafficking in Persons Report from the U.S. State Department shows which countries are the worst rated in terms of trafficking according to this respected report. The report offers the most comprehensive picture of human trafficking available, while primarily reflecting on the efforts of states to combat this issue.
The situation in the Czech Republic
What is the scale of the human trafficking problem in the Czech Republic? Publicly available crime statistics reveal a rise in detected human trafficking cases in recent years. Nevertheless, the data capture only a narrow slice of reality and may indicate greater trafficking activity or more effective work of the police, rather than the true scale of the problem. As with other illegal activities like smuggling, these figures do not provide a complete picture.
The Ministry of the Interior’s latest report on human trafficking in 2023 found the “state, structure and dynamics" of this crime remained comparable to the previous year. According to the document, the trading practices and techniques employed by perpetrators stayed consistent. However, the report identifies an ongoing trend of increasingly sophisticated methods. As a result, “victims in many cases have scant chance to realize they have been targeted by an organised group of perpetrators”.
While the situation remains stable, it is not getting necessarily getter better. In recent years, the National Centre against Organized Crime (NCOC) has handled numerous serious cases. In terms of trafficking, the biggest risk is associated with temporary agency employment. It is mainly fraudulent employment agencies that are involved in widespread exploitation of foreign workers.
According to the Ministry of Interior’s Report, war refugees from Ukraine are a particularly vulnerable group in temporary agency employment. Dubious employers and exploiters often target these workers, taking advantage of their vulnerabilities – such as language barriers, material deprivation, unfamiliarity with the local environment, and dependence on the jobs and housing provided.
