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Human trafficking has become a multi-billion dollar industry and a major human rights concern, which requires the collective effort of the global community to be successfully eradicated, according to a senior official of the United Nations Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM).

Trafficking of persons includes prostitution, debt bondage, forced labor and slavery, and exploitation of children as workers, soldiers or sex slaves. Data from the International Labor Organization (ILO) show that the migrant population currently stands at 120 million, of which around 12.3 million are enslaved in forced or bonded labor or sexual servitude at any one time. The U.S. Justice Department ranks human trafficking as the third largest criminal enterprise worldwide, generating an estimated $9.5 billion per year in terms of profit. The magnitude and extent of the human trafficking problem facing the world today has prompted the Group of 8 countries (G-8) in order to issue a communiqu