Despite ongoing efforts to end human trafficking, millions of lives are still being exploited across the world. Now in Vienna talks are being held to discuss how to protect men, women and children wherever they are.

Human trafficking is an industry that makes an estimated $US 30 billion a year in profits, although little of the money goes to the workers themselves.

The journey to modern day slavery begins differently. Some are deceived into believing better work opportunities lie abroad, others are abandoned by their communities, others still are sold by their relatives.

UN estimates that at any one time there are over two million people who do not have the freedom to leave and work under duress, often for no money at all.

Police chasing illegal immigrants

But as long as wealthier countries have a demand for cheap foreign labour, and those in poorer ones are prepared to risk everything to work abroad, there will always be a market for the human traffickers to exploit.

Russia and other former Soviet states have been major suppliers of human traffic victims in the last two decades.

Most victims are young women sold into sexual slavery in countries as far apart as U.S., Germany and Japan. 

Until five years ago, Russia didn’t even have the necessary legal framework to punish the traffickers. And with rising incomes, it has now become not only the source country, but the recipient.

Thousands of exploited labourers, mostly from Central Asia, work on Moscow’s streets and building sites. This is the focus of the Russian mission in Vienna.

“This is a growing problem. And not just for the immigrants. Most get into the country with fake documents, something they couldn’t do without help from corrupt officials,” Dmitry Dovgiy from Russia’s Prosecutor General’s Office said.

The Vienna Conference has brought together hundreds of UN officials, policemen, activists and charity workers. The event intends to stop human trafficking from being an invisible problem.