Trafficking in Persons

Definitions

Trafficking in persons is a serious crime that involves: the movement of people across or within borders; threats or use of force, coercion and deception; and exploitation, whether forced labour, forced prostitution, or other forms of servitude.

Trafficking in persons is not migrant smuggling. Smuggled migrants are usually free once they arrive at their destination; trafficking victims are not.

Trafficking in persons has been described as a modern form of slavery. It is a serious human rights violation and is reported by the United Nations to be the fastest growing form of transnational organized crime.

The Government of Canada is working to combat trafficking in persons both domestically and internationally.

Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punish Trafficking in Persons, Especially Women and Children, Supplementing the United Nations Convention Against Transnational Organized Crime Article 3 Use of terms

For the purposes of this Protocol:      (a)    “Trafficking in persons” shall mean the recruitment, transportation, transfer, harbouring or receipt of persons, by means of the threat or use of force or other forms of coercion, of abduction, of fraud, of deception, of the abuse of power or of a position of vulnerability or of the giving or receiving of payments or benefits to achieve the consent of a person having control over another person, for the purpose of exploitation. Exploitation shall include, at a minimum, the exploitation of the prostitution of others or other forms of sexual exploitation, forced labour or services, slavery or practices similar to slavery, servitude or the removal of organs;      (b)     The consent of a victim of trafficking in persons to the intended exploitation set forth in subparagraph (a) of this article shall be irrelevant where any of the means set forth in subparagraph (a) have been used;      (c)     The recruitment, transportation, transfer, harbouring or receipt of a child for the purpose of exploitation shall be considered “trafficking in persons” even if this does not involve any of the means set forth in subparagraph (a) of this article;      (d)     “Child” shall mean any person under eighteen years of age. Source: Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punish Trafficking in Persons, Especially Women and Children () which supplements the United Nations Convention against Transnational Organized Crime ().