There is no international consensus on a definition of trafficking. The Special Rapporteur on the sale of children, child prostitution and child pornography considers the following to be the most workable:

"Trafficking consists of all acts involved in the recruitment or transportation of persons within or across borders, involving deception, coercion or force, debt bondage or fraud, for the purpose of placing persons in situations of abuse or exploitation, such as forced prostitution, slavery-like practices, battering or extreme cruelty, sweatshop labour or exploitative domestic services."

Trafficking in women and children has emerged as an issue of global concern in recent years: facilitated by porous borders and advanced communication technologies, it has become increasingly transnational in scope and highly lucrative. Unlike drugs or arms, women and children can be "sold" several times - they are commodities in a transnational business that generates billions of dollars and operates with impunity.

Trafficking victims may be sold, tricked, forced or otherwise coerced into situations from which they cannot escape. Many are forced to work in the sex industry, as prostitutes or in the pornography industry, others enter marriage contracts.

Violence is not always used. In some cases traffickers take advantage of the vulnerability of those caught in a situation in which they have no choice or perceive they have no choice (e.g. persons living illegally in a country).

Others leave their countries willingly in the hopes of a better life, but end up in situations where their health and safety are in danger because of their vulnerability in a foreign country.

Trafficking routes fluctuate according to local conditions or supply and demand factors. It is no longer adequate to say that victims are trafficked from poor countries to the wealthier ones. In many cases the 'direction' or 'flow' may appear illogical.

However, one must remember that it benefits the traffickers to keep their victims in a foreign environment where not only are they vulnerable for having entered a country illegally, but disadvantaged because of their ignorance of the law, culture and language of that country.

It is increasingly difficult to identify trends and patterns, as the following examples show.