The Pacific is highly vulnerable to human trafficking, especially where developing countries have poor social and economic systems, high rates of poverty, under-resourced judiciary and government agencies, and inadequate laws, said the acting Chief Executive Officer of Pacific Dialogue Ltd., Patricia Kailola.

She was speaking on The Hidden Crime of Human Trafficking in the Pacific Islands Region, at the 2016 Pacific Update Conference at The University of the South Pacific (USP) in Laucala yesterday, 19 July 2016.

Ms Kailola explained that human trafficking is the recruitment, transportation, harbouring, transfer and receipt of people for sexual exploitation, forced labour or services, slavery, servitude and organ removal.

These, she said are usually done by force, threats, coercion, abduction, fraud, deception, and abuse of power over vulnerable people.

She said some of the effects of human trafficking are the rapid set-up of black markets and an illegal working population, which upsets general labour rights and undermines regulations and better work conditions.

She noted that crimes such as human trafficking impede national and international economic growth.

“There are also negative social and cultural effects on an individual, a community and a nation therefore Millennium Development Goals are not attainable,” she said.

She recommended the need to set-up a regional transnational crime control unit to address the issue of human trafficking.