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Urban crime and violence: Conditions and trends63available worldwide, or enough to arm one in every tenpersons, and that 1000 individuals each day are murdered byguns worldwide. 86Many legal and illicit arms arriving in West Africafrom Central and Eastern Europe, Russia, China and otherAfrican nations become converted by brokers and privatesellers who reap the profits. In Brazil, the ‘leakage’ of armsfrom military arsenals has been one of the prime ways inwhich weapons get into the hands of favela-based gangs. 87The upsurge in violent crimes in Kenya, particularly inNairobi over the last few years, has, in part, been attributedto the influx of illegal arms from war-torn neighbouringcountries, particularly Somalia. 88 Recent estimates for Kenyashow that there is one illegal firearm for every 300citizens. 89 This is likely to be much higher in Nairobi, wheregangs ‘provide a deep and widening market for illegalweapons’ and where an illegal firearm can be hired for aslittle as US$15. 90 Within the Economic Community of WestAfrican States (ECOWAS), the problems of arms traffickingand availability of small arms are vastly compounded by theproliferation of non-state armed groups. According to theUnited Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and theUS State Department, there are at least 8 million illicit smallarms in West Africa, with about half in the hands of criminalsor insurgents. These represent most of all illegal weapons onthe continent. 91 The problems have been particularly severein Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea, which were wrecked byprotracted civil wars.■ Human traffickingLike the trade in drugs and arms, human trafficking is aglobal problem that involves organized criminal groups andthat disproportionately affects women and children. Humantrafficking is defined as:The recruitment, transportation, transfer,harbouring or receipt of persons, by means ofthe threat or use of force or other forms ofcoercion, of abduction, of fraud, of deception,of the abuse of power or of a position of vulnerabilityor of the giving or receiving of paymentsor benefits to achieve the consent of a personhaving control over another person, for thepurpose of exploitation. Exploitation includes,at a minimum, the exploitation of the prostitutionof others or other forms of sexualexploitation, forced labour or services, slaveryor practices similar to slavery, servitude or theremoval of organs. 92Although accurate data is unavailable, it is estimated thatbetween 700,000 and 1 million persons are traffickedaround the world each year. 93 Trafficking people is bigbusiness that generates enormous revenues for traffickers.Human trafficking adds to urban service provision problems,already overburdened in many nations by waves of legal andillegal immigrants, by creating new crime and violencetargets largely unprotected by formal institutions that areunderserved by informal institutions. Trafficking peopleTotal world population:6389 million peopleWorld population age 15–64:4102 million people (100% * )Non-drug using population age 15–64:3902 million people (95.1% * )Annual prevalence of drug use:200 million people (4.9% * )Monthly prevalence of drug use:110 million people (2.7% * )Problem drug use age 15–64:25 million people (0.6% * )* in per cent of population age 15–64violates a wide array of national laws and contravenes UnitedNations protocols that have been adopted as part of theConvention against Organized Crime. 94 Like other crimes, itis best characterized as a complex process, rather than interms of discrete incidents.The trafficking process involves at least four phases –recruitment, transportation, exploitation and profit laundering– that take place in many countries and regions. Womenand children, especially girls, living in poverty and withouteconomic prospects are particularly vulnerable to traffickers,with bogus promises of jobs and financial security beingprime lures. Although sexual exploitation is by far the mostfrequently reported type of exploitation, forced labour is alsoa major component of the problem. Trafficking is oftenconfused with smuggling of human beings, which may entailelements of consent, whereas trafficking involves compulsionand criminal victimization. 95 Nevertheless, there can bea fine line between the two depending upon circumstances,and the results can be equally disastrous for individuals,especially when transportation arrangements go awry, as inthe case of 58 Chinese migrants who died in an airtighttruck on their way to the UK in 2001, or 19 Mexicanmigrants who suffocated in similar circumstances trying toenter the US in 2003. 96■ Origin, transit and destination pointsUNODC data reveals 127 countries in which traffickingreportedly originates and 137 destination countries. 97 Someof the 98 countries that are identified as transit pointsoverlap those identified as points of origin. The maincountries of origin include those in Central andSoutheastern Europe, the Commonwealth of IndependentStates and Asia. These regions are then followed by nationsin Western Africa, Latin America and the Caribbean. Theregions of origin tend to be economically poorer, rank higheron corruption indices, have had more recent political transitions,civil wars and civil disruptions, and (with theexception of Latin America) are generally more rural thandestination regions.Some of the main transportation paths for humantrafficking include countries within Central, Southern andFigure 3.17Illegal drug use at theglobal level (2004)Source: UNODC, 2006a, p8Human trafficking isa global problemthat involvesorganized criminalgroups and thatdisproportionatelyaffects women andchildren