As with human trafficking for other exploitative purposes, victims of trafficking for the purpose of organ removal are often recruited from vulnerable groups (for instance, those who live in extreme poverty) and traffickers are often part of transnational organised crime groups.
Strives to generate a deeper understanding of the factors that have an impact on journalists’ decisions when covering the topic, and to discuss the importance of fair and balanced media coverage of the issue, particularly its victims, in order to avoid them being re-victimized and suffer any undue hardship arising from media interventions in the future.
For a universally condemned, but globally evident issue, surprisingly little is known about human traffickers – those who enable or partake in the trade and exploitation of individual human beings. Data and information about how people come to commit trafficking crimes, their respective roles in networks of traffickers, their relationships to other criminals and to victims, and a strong understanding of trafficking modus operandi would help establish means by which actual traffickers can be identified, stopped and prosecuted, as well as preventing potential traffickers from becoming so.
A number of transnational organized crime groups are heavily involved in human trafficking. On the other hand, human trafficking is also carried out by actors who are not part of transnational organized crime groups or even non-transnational organized crime groups.
Corruption is one of the major contributing factors to the crime of trafficking in persons. It is both an underlying root cause and a facilitating tool to carry out and sustain this illicit trade. Worse corruption can also ensure safe havens for the profits collected as a result of human misery. Unfortunately, there has been very little exploration into the linkages of the two phenomena.