New Delhi: During the Covid-19 pandemic, traders traders have adjusted “normal” with social media and other online platforms that emerge as routes to exploit survivors, especially women, children and migrants who are vulnerable and ‘most risky’, said a UN study.
Nearly 37% of respondents on stakeholder surveys (Frontline practitioners) reported that the recruitment of survivors had moved online since the start of Pandemic.
“Realizing the increase in the amount of time people, especially children, spent on the internet, traders have advertised false jobs on social media,” said a report by the United Nations Office on drugs and crime (UNODC).
Ilias Chatzis, Head of the Unodc Human Trade Section and Migrant Smuggling, said this study found that children were increasingly targeted by human traders who used social media and other online platforms to recruit new people and profit from increasing demand for child sexual exploitation materials.
“Traffickers have responded to the closure of bars, clubs and massage parlors (because of locking, curfews, and other steps) by moving sexual exploitation of adults and children to homes and private apartments,” said studies outlining the impact of pandemics in trade Humans and recommend steps to deal with the challenges that arise.
This study refers to existing studies, available data, reports, unodc office surveys and stakeholder surveys for those who work to fight trade throughout the region.
Released recently in Vienna, the report showed that 39% of respondents’ stakeholder surveys reported that it was more difficult during a pandemic for the first respondent to detect trade victims.
One of the stakeholders interviewed for the report, Ravi Kant, the President of the Voluntary Organization Shakti Vahini, told Ti that traders changed their method and with the red light area closed during locking, this activity shifted to a residential area in the massage parror and spa.
“We have tracked 200 cases where traders operate in Garb Spa and Massage Parror in 2020 and 2021,” he said.
‘Online trafficking during a pandemic’
