human trafficking

noun

1. the illegal practice of procuring or trading in human beings for the purpose of prostitution, forced labor, or other forms of exploitation.

Word History and Origins

Origin of human trafficking¹

First recorded in 1985–90

Example Sentences

Police in Romania and Hungary say they have broken up a human trafficking ring that convinced vulnerable people, many just out of foster homes, to work in slave-like conditions in Budapest.

From BBC

Brown also filed a lawsuit against Buck, alleging sexual battery, assault, hate violence, emotional distress and human trafficking.

From Los Angeles Times

Referencing the “+57” lyric, “Turned off her phone so she wouldn’t get caught / Baby is bad, but she’s smart,” the agency’s general director Astrid Cáceres Cárdenas alleged the song alludes to the country’s network of human trafficking, in which young girls are invited to parties where they are vulnerable to sexual exploitation.

From Los Angeles Times

The NCA said it had about 70 ongoing investigations into networks or individuals in the top tier of organised immigration crime or human trafficking.

From BBC

Those include staffing the State Department with ideological allies who will pressure foreign governments to accept deportees; reallocating resources from ICE’s Homeland Security Investigations unit, which is focused on cross-border crimes like drug smuggling and human trafficking; enlisting the National Guard; and constructing hundreds of detention camps and hiring tens of thousands more enforcement agents.

From Slate