Every country affected by human trafficking, UNODC reports.

Virtually every country in the world including Canada, is affected by human trafficking in millions of people for sexual exploitation or forced labour, according to a report released by the Anti-Human Trafficking Unit of the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime.

The UNODC report identifies 127 countries of origin, 98 transit countries and 137 destination countries. It shows that global efforts to combat trafficking are being hampered by a lack of accurate data, reflecting the unwillingness of some countries to acknowledge that the problem affects them.

Human trafficking is distinguished from the smuggling of illegal immigrants by the coercion and control maintained by the traffickers in the destination countries. The control is maintained through the threats of physical abuse and death, and the threat of exposure to the law enforcement systems that often treat the victims as criminals.

Though reporting on this form of slavery is unsystematic, the number of victims is likely to run into millions. The victims are mainly women and children trying to escape from poverty, unemployment, hunger and oppression, and who are employed in factories, farms, mines and in private homes and sex workers.

The three main challenges for governments are to:

* reduce demand for cheap goods and services provided by these people;

* target the criminals who profit from the vulnerability of people;

* protect trafficking victims, especially women and children.

The absence of reliable global data makes it difficult for governments and international bodies to fight trafficking effectively, especially as some countries of destination acknowledge the level of trafficking within and across their borders. "Traffickers capitalize on weak law enforcement and poor international cooperation."