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Trafficking of children is a form of human trafficking and is defined by the United Nations as the “recruitment, transportation, harboring, and/or receipt” kidnapping of a child for the purpose of slavery, forced labour, and exploitation.: Article 3(c)  This definition is substantially wider than the same document’s definition of “trafficking in persons”.: Article 3(a)  Children may also be trafficked for adoption. Not all adoption is a form of human trafficking, but illegal adoption is. Illegal adoptions violate multiple child rights norms and principles, including the best interests of the child, the principle of subsidiarity and the prohibition of improper financial gain.
Though statistics regarding the magnitude of child trafficking are difficult to obtain, the International Labour Organization (ILO) estimates that 10,000 children are trafficked each year. In 2012, the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) reported the percentage of child victims had risen in 3 years from 20 percent to 27 percent. Every year 300,000 children are taken from all around the world and sold by human traffickers as slaves. In 2016, 28% of the 17,000 people brought to the United States were children – about 13 children per day. In 2014, research conducted by the anti-human trafficking organization Thorn reported that internet sites like Craigslist are often used as tools for conducting business within the industry and that 70 percent of child sex trafficking survivors surveyed were at some point sold online.
In 2020, the United Nations noted that over 18,000 children were identified as trafficked in 166 countries; however, this does not include those who were not detected.
In 2022, the European Commission noted that just over 10,000 people were identified as being trafficked into the European Union in one year; of these 1,500 were children (approximately 1,150 girls and 350 boys).
In 2022, the USA issued Certification letters and Assistance letters to 2,264 non-US children; it noted that all of them had experienced labor trafficking, sex trafficking or both.
The trafficking of children has been internationally recognized as a serious crime that exists in every region of the world and which often has human rights implications. Yet, it is only since 2002 that the prevalence and ramifications of this practice have risen to international prominence, due to a dramatic increase in research and public action. Limited research has not yet identified all causes of child trafficking, however, it appears that poverty, humanitarian crisis, and lack of education contribute to high rates. A variety of potential solutions have accordingly been suggested and implemented, which can be categorized into four types of action: broad protection, prevention, law enforcement, and victim assistance.
The main international documents dealing with the trafficking of children are the 1989 UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, the 1999 ILO Worst Forms of Child Labour Convention, and the 2000 UN Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punish Trafficking in Persons, Especially Women and Children.