Trafficking in Human Beings

Human trafficking is a form of modern-day slavery and involves the recruitment, harboring, transportation and provision of people through the use of force, fraud or coercion. Victims are often lured with false promises of well-paying jobs or are manipulated by people they trust, but are instead forced or coerced into prostitution, domestic servitude, farm or factory labor, or other types of forced labor, debt bondage or slavery.

Human trafficking is among the fastest growing criminal activities in the world, affecting almost every country, whether as a country of origin, transit or destination. Every year, millions of men, women and children worldwide, including Sweden, are victims of human trafficking. It helps finance organized criminal groups and undermines law and order.

Human trafficking is a multi-billion dollar criminal industry that denies freedom for millions of people around the world. Together with drug trafficking, it is the second most lucrative criminal business in the world, only beaten by arms smuggling.

The Center for Transnational Threats (CTT) has a unique and well-established global network at both policy and law-enforcement level and is part of several EU-anti trafficking expert groups.

CTT is working with the prevention of both sex- and labour trafficking, identifying new trends, mapping new modus operandi and facilitating international cooperation. The traffickers adapt quickly to new trends and often change their means.

Law enforcement and researchers need to work together and efficiently to keep up with these changes. In order to achieve this strategic insights are needed, close cooperation and the exchange of the latest information in order to fully comprehend this very complex and rapidly changing phenomenon. CTT acts as a bridge between law enforcement agencies, academics and private actors, a platform for the exchange of knowledge and information. International cooperation, creating a platform for both national and international stakeholders to engage in research and dialogues on the issue in order to explore ideas and ways to react to the four Ps of human trafficking: prevention, protection, prosecution and partnership.

We also contribute with tools and strategies on how to implement new resources and collective responses to the area. There is a need to better understand non-traditional threats both at policy level and practitioner level.