FROM BONDAGE TO FREEDOM 1 Chapter 1 Introduction to Trafficking in Persons A. Nature and Extent of Trafficking Trafficking in persons especially women and children has become an important issue transcending borders, affecting countries all over the world. It is a growing phenomenon involving transnational organized crime syndicates. Women and children have been trafficked for prostitution, forced marriage and other forms of sexual exploitation such as sex tourism, and pornography, as domestic workers, The extent of the problem can be seen in: • its reach, all over the world, • the increasing vulnerability of women and children to trafficking, • the link between trafficking and migration, • the involvement of transnational organized crime, • the use of modern technology, particularly internet, to facilitate trafficking, • the lopsided development programmes, • the link between trafficking and labourers in sweat shops and HIV/AIDS, on construction sites, as beggars, as male order brides, as camel jockeys • the unequal distribution of benefits of globalisation, and for organ trade. The increasing use of new information • the increasing number of technologies, in particular, the persons trafficked particularly Internet, has altogether added a new from Asia and Eastern Europe. dimension to the problem faced. Poverty and economic deprivation – the gap between the rich and the poor within countries and between different regions has especially made women more vulnerable to trafficking. Lured by hope of an improvement in economic circumstances of them and their families, they are often unwittingly duped and coerced into exploitative slave-like situations. Trafficking, therefore, is regarded as a contemporary form of slavery and a gross violation of basic human rights of trafficked persons.