Around the world, criminals are selling people for profit. Vulnerable women and girls form the majority of human trafficking victims, including those driven into degrading sexual exploitation, said United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon in his message on World Day against Trafficking in Persons, (July 30), released by the United Nations Information Center in Tehran.
He called on all countries to fight money laundering and to sign and ratify the UN Conventions against corruption and transnational organized crime, including the human trafficking protocol.
Trafficked persons are often tricked into servitude with false promises. Migrants crossing deadly seas and burning deserts to escape conflict, poverty and persecution are also at risk of being trafficked.
Children and young people can find their lives stolen, their education blocked and their dreams dashed. It is an assault on their most basic human rights and fundamental freedoms.
Every country must join to overcome this transnational threat by supporting and protecting victims while pursuing and prosecuting the criminals, he said.
