The United Nations said Thursday more women than men are human traffickers, particularly in Eastern Europe and Central Asia.
The UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) published a global report on "trafficking in persons" with a warning that the UN still has a lot to learn about the worldwide problem, as it admitted that data and understanding still elude researchers on the sad plague of modern-day slavery.
"We have a big picture, but it is impressionistic and lacks depth," said Antonio Maria Costa, the UNODC executive director.
"We fear the problem is getting worse, but we cannot prove it for lack of data, and many governments are obstructing," Costa said in releasing the report at UN headquarters in New York. "It is sick that we should even need to write a report about slavery in the 21st century."
The report provided no data regarding the global scale of the problem, noting only that the total number of identified victims rose from 11,700 to 14,900 between 2003 and 2006 in 71 selected countries.
Costa called for help for the victims, and for measures to deter trafficking, increase the risks for traffickers and "lower the demand for the goods and services of modern-day slaves."
In addition to the need for more research, the report said many governments still lack the legal tools to identify, report or prosecute human trafficking. A total of 155 countries have signed on to implement agreements or laws against human trafficking in the past five years, but only 61 of them provided data for the present report.
"Either they are blind to the problem, or they are ill-equipped to deal with it," Costa said.
Sexual exploitation is the predominant reason for human trafficking making up 79 per cent of cases, followed by forced labour. But there were worrying instances of new types of trafficking, including trade with human organs, the report said.
The report said 30 per cent of countries that provided information for the report showed that women made up the largest proportion of traffickers. In Eastern Europe and Central Asia, females accounted for more than 60 per cent of convictions, many of them were former victims.
UNODC said human trafficking has become a multi-billion-dollar business, with profits second only to arms trafficking around the world.
Forced labour represents 18 per cent of human trafficking, but has eluded detection and is less reported than trafficking for sex because the latter is highly visible in cities and along highways.
"We only see the monster's tail," Costa said.
Forced labour involves hundred of thousands of victims in sweat shops, fields, mines, factories or trapped in domestic servitude, the report said.
Another form of human trafficking involves child soldiers and the explotation of children for street begging or sex.
Southern Africa was cited as the region with the weakest mechanisms for prosecuting and reporting abuses. Of the 11 countries in the region, only Zambia has prosecuted suspects since 2003.
Some countries, including China, Saudi Arabia and Iran, did not provide any data to the UNODC.
The UNODC said it was alarmed by reports of cases involving new forms of trafficking, including for organ trade in Europe and other regions, ritual killings in Southern Africa and forced marriages in Asia.
According to earlier UN estimates, annual profits from human trafficking are 32 billion dollars. Around 2.5 million people are estimated to be held in forced labour, including forced sex, at any given time.
Citing a lack of information, the report said: "Today, the member states lack the ability to say with any precision how many victims of human trafficking there are, where they come from or where they are going."
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