New Delhi: India has emerged as a key destination and transit point for global trafficking of women and girls, a UN report has said.
Besides India, other sources of human trafficking are Thailand, Pakistan, China and Cambodia, the United Nations Population Fund report on State of World Population said.
"India and Pakistan are major destinations for trafficked women and girls and also transit points into the Middle East," it said.
According to the report, human trafficking is the third most lucrative illicit business in the world after arms and drugs and a major source of organised crime revenue.
The industry generates an estimated seven billion to $12 billion annually and according to International Labour Organisation estimates traffickers net an additional $32 billion a year once the victims are in the destination country.
In South Asia, illegal trading of children is of particular concern as it is "an extension of a serious child labour problem, which includes the exploitation of girls for domestic work," the report said.
It said the largest number of women trafficked in Asia are from within or from the region.
"Trafficked women are usually forced into prostitution and sex tourism, commercial marriages and other "female" occupations such as domestic work, agricultural and sweatshop labour," it said.
South-East Asia and South Asia are home to the largest numbers of internationally trafficked persons, at an estimated 2.25 lakh and 1.5 lakh respectively.
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