Trafficking in persons generally consists of three core elements: an act , the means , and the purpose of exploitation. In simple terms, it is recruiting, moving, or controlling someone through force, fraud, or coercion in order to exploit them, often for labor or sexual purposes.

Core Legal Definition

Most international and national laws describe trafficking in persons as a combination of three parts.

  • The Act (what is done): recruitment, transportation, transfer, harboring, or receipt of persons.
  • The Means (how it is done): threat or use of force, coercion, abduction, fraud, deception, abuse of power or vulnerability, or giving/receiving payments to control another person.
  • The Purpose (why it is done): exploitation, including sexual exploitation, forced labor, slavery or practices similar to slavery, servitude, or removal of organs.

If these three elements are present, it is typically considered trafficking in persons under international standards.

Typical Forms of Exploitation

Trafficking can involve different kinds of exploitation that may overlap.

  • Sexual exploitation, including forced prostitution and other forms of commercial sexual exploitation.
  • Forced labor in sectors like agriculture, construction, domestic work, mining, manufacturing, or street begging.
  • Domestic servitude, where people are trapped in private homes with little or no pay and no freedom of movement.
  • Debt bondage, where a personā€™s labor is demanded to repay a debt that is manipulated so it can never be fully paid off.

Special Case: Children

For children, the definition is stricter and more protective.

  • Any commercial sexual exploitation of a minor is trafficking, even without proof of force, fraud, or coercion.
  • Recruiting, transporting, or harboring a child for forced labor or other exploitation is trafficking regardless of the ā€œmeansā€ used.

What Trafficking Is Not (Common Confusions)

Certain situations may look similar but are defined differently in law, even if they are also serious abuses.

  • Smuggling vs. trafficking: smuggling is usually about illegal border crossing with consent and ends after arrival, while trafficking focuses on exploitation and can occur with or without movement across borders.
  • Bad working conditions vs. trafficking: exploitative or illegal work conditions become trafficking when force, fraud, or coercion is used to obtain or maintain the personā€™s labor or services.

TL;DR:
Trafficking in persons consists of: (1) acts like recruiting, transporting, harboring, or receiving a person; (2) using force, fraud, coercion, or abuse of vulnerability; (3) for the purpose of exploiting that person, especially in forced labor or sexual exploitation.

Information gathered from public forums or data available on the internet and portrayed here.