US DEPARTMENT OF STATE: 2024 Trafficking in Persons (TIP) Report

Dear Read­er:

Human traf­fick­ing is a stain on the con­science of our soci­ety.  It fuels crime, cor­rup­tion, and vio­lence.  It dis­torts our economies and harms our work­ers. And it vio­lates the fun­da­men­tal right of all peo­ple to be free.

Around the globe, an esti­mat­ed 27 mil­lion peo­ple are exploit­ed for labor, ser­vices, and com­mer­cial sex.  Through force, fraud, and coer­cion, they are made to toil in fields and fac­to­ries, in restau­rants and res­i­dences.  Traf­fick­ers prey on some of the world’s most mar­gin­al­ized and vul­ner­a­ble indi­vid­u­als – prof­it­ing from their plight.

The State Department’s annu­al Traf­fick­ing in Per­sons Report pro­vides the world’s most com­pre­hen­sive assess­ment of this abhor­rent prac­tice, as well as efforts by gov­ern­ments and stake­hold­ers around the globe to com­bat it.  By mea­sur­ing progress in 188 coun­tries – includ­ing the Unit­ed States – we are advanc­ing Pres­i­dent Biden’s com­mit­ment to pre­vent traf­fick­ing, pros­e­cute per­pe­tra­tors, and pro­tect survivors.

Even as this resource cov­ers long-stand­ing forms and meth­ods of traf­fick­ing, it also exam­ines the grow­ing role of tech­nol­o­gy in both facil­i­tat­ing exploita­tion and coun­ter­ing it.

Dig­i­tal tools have ampli­fied the reach, scale, and speed of traf­fick­ing. Per­pe­tra­tors use dat­ing apps and online ads to recruit vic­tims.  They use online plat­forms to sell illic­it sex­u­al con­tent.  They lever­age encrypt­ed mes­sag­ing and dig­i­tal cur­ren­cies to evade detection.

At the same time, tech­nol­o­gy is also one of our most pow­er­ful tools to com­bat this endur­ing scourge.  Mobile phones, social media plat­forms, and arti­fi­cial intel­li­gence make it pos­si­ble for advo­cates and law enforce­ment to raise greater aware­ness about the rights of work­ers and migrants, locate vic­tims and per­pe­tra­tors of online sex­u­al exploita­tion, and ana­lyze large amounts of data to detect emerg­ing human traf­fick­ing trends.

As tech­nol­o­gy makes it eas­i­er for traf­fick­ers to oper­ate across geo­gra­phies and juris­dic­tions, those of us com­mit­ted to root­ing out this hor­ren­dous crime – in gov­ern­ment, busi­ness­es, civ­il soci­ety – can and must work togeth­er and coor­di­nate our efforts.

I am grate­ful to every­one who con­tributed to this report, espe­cial­ly the State Department’s Human Traf­fick­ing Expert Con­sul­tant Net­work, who helps ensure our find­ings and rec­om­men­da­tions are informed by those with lived expe­ri­ence of human trafficking.

I also want to rec­og­nize our TIP Report Heroes who have been essen­tial part­ners in this work.  For the past 20 years, the Depart­ment of State has hon­ored more than 170 such cham­pi­ons of human dig­ni­ty and decen­cy from over 90 coun­tries – sur­vivors, gov­ern­ment lead­ers, law enforce­ment offi­cials, lawyers, social work­ers.  Many of them have put their own safe­ty at risk to sup­port vic­tims and share their stories.

The courage and per­sis­tence of sur­vivors and advo­cates like these hum­ble and inspire us all as we con­tin­ue work­ing to build a safer and more just world.

Sin­cere­ly,

Antony Blinken