Latin American Herald Tribune - Report: Human Trafficking Rivals Drug Trade in Profits
Report: Human Trafficking Rivals Drug Trade in Profits
SAN JUAN - The profits generated by human trafficking worldwide tripled last year to reach $96 billion, becoming the second most profitable crime after the drug trade, a report released by singer Ricky Martin’s humanitarian foundation said.
The report was presented at a conference entitled “Visiting Human Trafficking: An Updated Profile of the World and Puerto Rico,” held on the main campus of the University of Puerto Rico.
The principal speaker was Mohammed Mattar, an expert in legislation against human trafficking and executive director of the Protection Project, a human rights institute based at The Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies in Washington.
Human trafficking includes exploitation for such purposes as prostitution, sexual violence, child pornography, pederasty, sexual tourism, wife slavery, forced labor, slavery and similar practices, servitude and the extraction of organs.
The president of the Ricky Martin Foundation, UPR researcher Cesar Rey, told Efe that the report also showed that the illegal drug trade in Puerto Rico generates $4 billion a year, an amount equal to the budget of the island’s Department of Education.
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