Thompson warns on human trafficking trade
Oscar-winning actress Emma Thompson warned today that human trafficking was on the increase.
She said the trade in exploiting people by forcing, or deceiving them, into leaving their homes was “increasing big, big, big time - it’s the third largest shadow economy after drugs and small arms”.
She was speaking Vienna before a United Nations forum on the problem which starts tomorrow.
Thompson, who has won two Oscars and is also a screenwriter, is the chair of the Helen Bamber Foundation, a British-based group that helps rebuild the lives of victims of cruelty.
Thompson warned it was much easier to buy and sell people, especially women, who do not have birth certificates.
“In many, many countries in the world, girls simply aren’t registered and they get lost and they get sold and they get used, and I know that because I’ve spoken to lots of them in lots of different countries,” Thompson said.
She added that human trafficking had increased “exponentially” over the past decade and that traffickers were “fantastically sophisticated.”
Sometimes traffickers are neighbours, uncles, brothers, even fiancés and often other women who have families and daughters of their own, Thompson said.
“All the stories are different but mostly they involve trust and the breaking of someone’s trust,” she said.
