Climate-related disasters become a cause of human trafficking: UN report – WION

The UN said on Tuesday that there is mounting evidence that gang-based crime is taking advantage of an increasing number of displaced people as a result of climate-related disasters. According to a report published by the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), the ongoing conflict in Ukraine is another risk factor for a rise in human trafficking.

“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 climate-induced disasters as root causes for trafficking in persons,” it said.

The analysis of 800 court cases and information gathered from 141 nations between 2017 and 2020 form the basis of the report.

Based on the research, impoverished farming, fishing, and other groups that primarily depend on the extraction of natural resources for their livelihoods were “disproportionately” impacted by climate change.

People were turning into easy targets for traffickers after they were “deprived of their means of subsistence and forced to flee their community,” the report's primary author Fabrizio Sarrica said at a press conference.

More than 23.7 million people were internally displaced by climate-related catastrophes in 2021 alone, and many more abandoned their nations entirely.

The Philippines and Bangladesh have seen a rise in cases of human trafficking, according to the UN drug agency, after severe storms and typhoons forced millions of people from their homes.

Many people were being forced to relocate due to droughts and floods in Ghana as well as the Caribbean area, which is vulnerable to storms and sea level rise.

(With inputs from agencies)