ACI Prensa Staff, Feb 9, 2024 / 18:00 pm
Any day of the year more than 50 million people are enslaved in the world according to the latest estimate published in a joint report by the International Organization for Migration (IOM), the International Labor Organization (ILO), and Walk Free, a human rights group that seeks the eradication of modern slavery in all its forms.
Many of the people affected by trafficking are in Latin America, where 90% of the victims are women, especially girls, destined for sexual exploitation and where many of the countless migrants who cross the continent are prey for human traffickers and those facilitating illegal immigration.
The Catholic Church dedicated Thursday as a Day of Prayer and Reflection against Human Trafficking.
Fifty million people in servitude means that 1 out of every 150 people in the world is enslaved. Of those, 35% are boys and girls, according to the 2022 Global Report of the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC).