Child trafficking statistics

Global trafficking statistics

20.9 million men, women and children are trapped in some form of forced labour or human trafficking for labour and sexual exploitation.

International Labour Organisation, ILO Global Estimate of Forced Labour: Results and methodology, 2012

1.2 million children are trafficked every year.

International Labour Organisation, Every Child Counts: New Global Estimates on Child Labour, 2012

Between 2010 and 2012, victims holding citizenship from 152 different countries were found in 124 countries.

United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), Global Report on Trafficking in Persons, 2014

UK trafficking statistics

3,805 potential victims of human trafficking were identified in 2016.

National Crime Agency, National Referral Mechanism Statistics: End of Year Summary, 2016

More than a third of all potential victims of trafficking (1,278) were children aged 18 and under.

National Crime Agency, National Referral Mechanism Statistics: End of Year Summary, 2016

The United Kingdom is the most prominent country of origin for trafficked children – a total of 255 reported cases – followed by Albania (227), Vietnam (227), Afghanistan (74), Eritrea (48), Nigeria (43) and Iran (42).

National Crime Agency, National Referral Mechanism Statistics: End of Year Summary, 2016

More than a quarter of all trafficked children go missing from local authority care.

ECPAT UK and Missing People, Heading Back to Harm: A study on trafficked and unaccompanied children going missing from care in the UK, 2016

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Governments must make good global promises on child labour

ECPAT UK is calling on governments across the world to honour the commitment to eradicate child labour on global World Day Against Child Labour (12th June).
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You may be surprised to hear that each year criminals bring hundreds of children to the UK for abuse in domestic servitude, sexual exploitation and other forms of forced labour. Just last year, for example, 700 children were found in horrendous circumstances of human trafficking, a 35% increase on the previous year. Your help is so urgently needed to stop this alarming trend.
Annual reports

ECPAT UK is a registered charity (Number 1104948) and a company limited by guarantee (Number 5061385).
ECPAT UK Row for Freedom

In 2012, Debbie Beadle, ECPAT UK Head of Youth Programmes, captained a team of women rowers across the Atlantic Ocean to raise awareness of human trafficking and raise funds for ECPAT UK. The Row For Freedom team earned two world records in the process: ‘The fastest crossing of the Atlantic Ocean by an all-female team’ and ‘The first five-woman team to row any ocean’.

The National Referral Mechanism

The National Referral Mechanism is a process set up by the Government to identify and support victims of trafficking in the UK. It was born out of the Government's obligation to identify victims under the Council of Europe Convention on Action against Human Trafficking, which came into force on 1 February 2008.
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Heading back to harm: A study on trafficked and unaccompanied children going missing from care in the UK

Trafficked and unaccompanied asylum-seeking children are going missing from UK care at an “alarmingly high” rate, according to Heading Back to Harm, a study by leading charities ECPAT UK and Missing People.
Record number of UK child trafficking cases reported in 2016

Child trafficking referrals increased by 30% to 1,278 in 2016, the highest on record according to the latest figures from the National Crime Agency.
Our history

Twenty five years ago, the idea of a campaign to ‘End Child Prostitution in Asian Tourism’ was launched in Thailand by a small group of concerned individuals. Twenty-five years later, this campaign, ECPAT, has evolved into a global network of civil society organisations dedicated to end the commercial sexual exploitation of children.
Definitions
Better support, better protection: Steps lawyers and guardians can take to better identify and protect trafficked children

This report provides a snapshot of the manner in which children who may have been trafficked into and within five EU states were or were not identified and protected in and up to 2016.
Fundraise for us

Our incredible fundraisers make a real difference to the lives of trafficked young people.
Child trafficking, exploitation and modern slavery

Our full-day face-to-face training will support participants to develop a clear understanding of how to recognise child trafficking, exploitation and modern slavery, as well as provide up-to-date skills to respond to these abuses and better support trafficked children.
Hold online offenders financially accountable for child sexual abuse

In 2016, we called on Michael Gove MP, UK Secretary of State for Justice, to grant access to recovery funds for child victims of online sexual abuse. Thank you to the 38,543 ECPAT UK supporters who signed this petition.