Who is most at danger for human trafficking?

LONDON - India, Libya, and Myanmar are the most dangerous countries in the world for women who are exploited by traffickers and forced to marry, work and sell sex. This resulted in a global expert poll on Tuesday.
Nigeria and Russia ranked fourth in the worst women's polling out of approximately 550 female gender experts in the Thomson Reuters Foundation survey.
From prisons in Libya to curses from priests in Nigeria to permeable borders in Myanmar and visa abuses around the World Cup in Russia, women, and girls are increasingly being attacked and trapped by traffickers using a variety of tactics.
Women and girls are seven out of 10 victims in an industry that affects an estimated 40 million people worldwide, and generate $ 150 billion in illegal annual profits for traffickers, according to the United Nations Walk-in and Human Rights Walk Free Foundation.
"They are singularly vulnerable in economic, social, and cultural terms because of their subordinate status," said Christa Hayden Sharpe of the Charity International Justice Mission.
Women and girls in India face the greatest threat posed by traffickers as they continue to be considered sexual objects and second-class citizens.

"REALLY DIRE"

In Libya, which is divided between rival governments, while ports are controlled mainly by armed groups that smuggle Africans on boats to Europe, many migrants are imprisoned and suffering forced labor, say the United Nations and the European Union.
There are also reports of arrested migrants being bought and sold on "slave markets".
"The situation of migrants and girls traveling through Libya is really bad," said Hanan Salah, a senior researcher on Libya for Human Rights Watch. "I would say that the majority of them are at risk of abuse and abuse."
Women in Myanmar, who have been in the limelight after the 700,000 Rohingya exodus to Bangladesh since the insurgent attacks of last year triggered a crackdown on security, face another threat posed by traffickers - they are forced into marriages in China.
China is by far the most frequent destination for victims of human trafficking from Myanmar - two-thirds of the 307 cases investigated by its government in 2016.
Lack of jobs in Myanmar means that poor girls and women are trafficked to traffickers - many of them women - who, under false pretenses, bring them to China as brides for men in a country that, due to its one-child policy, creates an imbalance between them the sexes.

FROM WITCHCRAFT TO WORLD CUP

Thousands of Nigerian women and girls are lured to Europe each year via Libya for so-called juju rituals, which bind them to their traffickers before being forced into sex work in Italy, according to the United Nations.
The recent order of a traditional ruler in the state of Edo to lift the voodoo rituals and warn the priests who carry them out is changing the nature of trafficking in Nigeria.
"The new dimension is that they (the traffickers) now tell the girls that they will get them a job as a nurse and domestic help in Dubai ... (with) travel documents ... to make it look legal," said Julie Okah. Donli. Head of the Anti-Trafficking Agency NAPTIP.
Russia is an important country of origin and destination for female victims. Women from the region would be deported to Europe and the Middle East and from countries such as Thailand, China and Nigeria arrived, said the Russian anti-slavery group Alternativa.

Conclusion

Human trafficking is a global problem, but of all the victims I have seen, I have found those from Southeast Asia, especially India, to be the most vulnerable, "said Triveni Acharya of the Indian Charitable Foundation on Combating Trafficking." Girls continue to be seen as a burden to the parents who are inferior to the boy, "she added, explaining how many rural girls are attracted by traffickers promising jobs or marriages in large cities.