The United Nations on Wednesday released reports nearly three-quarters of human trafficking victims worldwide are girls and women.
The 2016 Global Report on Trafficking in Persons stated that 51 per cent of all those affected are adult women and 20 per cent are underage girls.
The report pointed to an increase in the percentage of adult men ensnared in the illegal smuggling, rising from 13 per cent in 2004 to 21 per cent a decade later.
Similar to a report released two years ago, nearly a third of all the victims are children.
Between 2012 and 2014, a total of 63,251 victims of human trafficking were reported in 106 countries.
UNODC Director, Yury Fedotov, said in the report’s introduction in that time, a total of 14,191 smugglers were convicted.
Fedotov said: “In terms of the different types of trafficking, sexual exploitation and forced labour are the most prominent.
“But the report shows that trafficking can have numerous other forms, including, victims compelled to act as beggars and forced into sham marriages.
“Trafficking also includes benefit fraud, pornography production, organ removal, among others.”
According to the report, human trafficking is more likely to take place in conflict zones or under terrorist regimes.
It said that a large military presence can also lead to demand for labour and sex workers.
The report does not contain data from the migration crises of 2015 to 2016.
On Tuesday, the UN Security Council passed its first resolution addressing human trafficking in conflict zones.
It called for member states to define trafficking as a criminal act, protect victims and to pursue smugglers.
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