U.N. Warns Climate Change Increasing Human Trafficking Risks
7:00 JST, January 25, 2023
VIENNA (AFP-Jiji) — Evidence is emerging that climate-related disasters are becoming a cause of human trafficking as criminal gangs exploit a growing number of uprooted people, the United Nations said Tuesday.
The continuing war in Ukraine is also another risk factor for increased human trafficking, the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) said in a report.
“Climate change is increasing vulnerability to trafficking,” the UNODC report said. “While a systematic global analysis of the impact of climate change in trafficking in persons is missing, community level studies in different parts of the world point at weather induced disasters as root causes for trafficking in persons,” it said.
The report is based on data from 141 countries collected from 2017 to 2020, and the analysis of 800 court cases.
The impact of climate change “disproportionally” affected poor farming, fishing and other communities mainly relying on the extraction of natural resources for their livelihoods, the report said.
Once “deprived of their means of subsistence and forced to flee their community,” people were becoming easy prey for traffickers, Fabrizio Sarrica, the report’s main author, told a press briefing.
In 2021 alone, climate-related disasters internally displaced more than 23.7 million people, while many others fled their countries altogether.
As entire regions of the world are at risk of becoming “increasingly uninhabitable,” millions will face “high risk of exploitation along migration routes,” the U.N. report said.
The U.N. drugs agency noted that an increase in cases of human trafficking had been observed in Bangladesh and the Philippines after devastating cyclones and typhoons displaced millions.
"News Services" POPULAR ARTICLE
-
Dollar Edges Lower, Yen at 34-year Trough
-
Japan Visitors Exceed 3 Mln in March, a Monthly Record, Tourism Agency Says
-
EU Ratchets up Pressure on TikTok’s New Rewards App over Risks to Kids, Warns of Suspension
-
Japan’s Nikkei Ends 1% Higher after Sharp Fall; Chip-Related Shares Weigh (Update 1)
-
Japan’s Yen Hits 155 Per Dollar, Weakest Since 1990
JN ACCESS RANKING
- China Mutes Memorialization of Reformer Hu Yaobang; Memories Could Spark Critique of Xi Administration
- Shinkansen Services Suspended After Man ‘Searches for Phone’ on Tracks; Disruption Affects About 14,000 Passengers
- U.S. 7th Fleet officer Arrested on Suspicion of Stealing Sushi, Sashimi, Chicken at Kanagawa Shopping Mall; Suspect Caught Mid-Meal
- UNRWA Director Describes Catastrophic Destruction in Gaza; Says Relief Trucks Robbed, ‘People’s Hearts Destroyed’
- JAL Airplane Experiences Radio Malfunction During Flight, Lands Safely By Relying on Light Signals