One would have liked to deem that slave trading had perished with the medieval ages. It has not. Human commodity trafficking flourishes in the hands of transnational criminal organisations. Trafficking in women and children for sex trade is a burgeoning industry. Organised crime is often seen as a form of borderline entrepreneurship that sustains itself through opportunities provided by various forms of prohibition. The excuse offered is that they are simply meeting the demands of consumers predisposed to pay for certain commodities and services not regarded socially acceptable. Drug trafficking is one activity. Human commodity trafficking is another.

Illegal migrant trafficking itself is an ever-expansive industry. Most developing nations are home to a steady flow of "both legal and illegal migrants seeking to escape from poverty or repression or to obtain greater freedom and economic opportunities elsewhere. In other cases, war, ethnic cleansing, environmental degradation, or political persecution are the driving forces for the exodus." This transit of people is facilitated by outfits which act as travel agents. Some of these are involved in crime, some are not. Diversification is the name of the game. Estimates of the United Nations put the figure of people trafficked around the world annually at four million. Syndicates make seven billion dollars in the bargain.

Migrants are left at the mercy of the cartels which treat people as commodities and smuggle women and children for the commercial sex industry or for forced labour or even to use them as beggars. There are instances when women propelled by economic desperation knowingly enter the commercial sex. Women are also lured by attractive package deals and offers of well-paying jobs only to be coerced into prostitution upon arrival. This is not true only of women from developing countries, but also those from eastern Europe who are trafficked to western Europe, Israel and the United States.

The organised criminal organisations have everything working for them. The start-up costs for "recruitment" and "transportation" is minimal compared to the returns they can rake in. Women and children are durable commodities and can be used and re-used as long as it is profitable. They can also be sold or transferred to others in the same business. Moreover, pornography of women and children have become easier and cost-effective in the digital age. And lastly, all these pernicious activities can be carried out with minimum risk. Why not? Penalties for trafficking in many countries are infinitesimal and enforcement agencies are either lax or nonexistent altogether.

Margaret Beare, director of the Nathanson Centre for the Study of Organized Crime and Corruption, looks at the issue of illegal migration and transnational crimes within the wider debate of security threats. She hits the nail on the head when she says, "While there are aspects of illegal migration that constitute a significant 'human security' issue and must be addressed with appropriate policies, in most jurisdictions the 'national security' issues, if present, result from the root causes behind the illegal migration - not the illegal migration itself." She dismisses the traditional way of looking at illegal migration only in terms of demand, supply and costs, and wonders how the state can tilt the scales so that risks of being involved in criminal activity is greater than the gains.

"Push" factors have been seen to be more instrumental in promoting illegal migration than "pull" factors. This varies between and among countries. Some countries, and parts of specific countries have a tradition in emigrating while others do not. While organised crime groups are caught in their chosen cycle of recruitment, escape, voyage, off-loading, and debt collection, all this cannot go unabated without the patronage of the "legitimate" society. Since corruption knows no boundaries, transnational human cargo smuggling knows none either. In August 1997, a complete shift of immigration employees responsible for guarding the entry area to L Aurora International Airport in Guatemala City had to be suspended following a dispute over illegal payments obtained from Ecuadorians carrying fake documents.

There is a thin dividing line between "worthy refugees" and "economically motivated illegal aliens", and illegal migration is typically not perceived to be a "national issue" when migration is "good for the country". Beare says these contradictions are what precisely creates illegal migration markets. There is a sense of futility in targeting those who benefit from human trafficking. Corruption needs to be eliminated first. Crackdowns too result in the smuggling activity becoming more sophisticated and violent. Organised groups in different countries start collaborating with each other.

Gillian Caldwell, Steve Galtser, Jyothi Kanics and Nadia Steinzor of Global Survival Network (GSN) delve deeper with their examination of trafficking of Russian women for commercial sex activities. About 50,000 women leave Russia each year, according to official records alone. The number of Russian women entering Germany and Switzerland has risen during their country's transition to a market economy. Russian women have also appeared Japan and other Asian countries as waitresses, cabaret dancers and prostitutes. The United State, nevertheless, remain the favourite destination. In a country where women account for two-thirds of the unemployed, more than 80 per cent of women queuing in front of foreign embassies said they wanted to leave for higher earnings. Only perhaps to land up as prostitutes in the West.

The lucrative Russian human trade is controlled by the mafiya. The Russian Ministry of Internal Affairs knew in 1993 of at least 5,000 organised crime groups with an estimated leadership of 18,000 and membership of 100,000. Within a year, the number of groups had increased by 60 per cent. The current figures would be anybody's guess. By 1996 these groups were controlling 40,000 businesses. Some 70-80 per cent of Russian businessmen pay protection money to the mafiya. The reason for the involvement of the mafiya in the commercial sex trade is no different from others. International trafficking operations, however, carried out by smaller mafiya groups, says GSN.

Thailand, on the other hand, is both a major source country and destination country, points out Pasuk Phonggpaichit. Here the inward flow is mainly from neighbouring Burma (Myanmar); the outflow by and large is to Japan, Taiwan and Germany. Here human trafficking is linked to other illicit activities such as gun-running, illegal gambling and drug trafficking and is propitiated by links with influential men in bureaucracy, military, police and politics. Ironically, migration has worked well for the economy. Remittances from Thai out-migrants have helped diminish the foreign exchange deficit. In 1976 remittances were only 485 million baht. The amount skyrocketed more than ninety times to reach a mindboggling figure of 45,700 million baht in 1995.

Sarah Shannon takes the discussion from the national level to the world level as she explores the involvement of organised crime in the global sex trade. She rightly admits that it is difficult to assess the size of the industry. Some facts are available though. More than 1,380,000 children are involved in the commercial sex trade in Southeast Asia and the Pacific isles. There are 702,000 others in Latin America while the numbers for the US are put at anything between 100,000 and 300,000. Global profits from trafficking in children alone cross the five billion dollar mark every year.

In Southeast Asia, over 525,000 women are victims of coerced prostitution; the illicit sex market in the European Union accounts for 200,000-500,000 female prostitutes. In Italy, 19,000-25,000 women working as prostitutes are of foreign origin; in Germany 75 per cent of the prostitutes are from another country. Exploitation of women obviously yield more money than child trafficking. In Russia alone, women-trafficking is worth seven billion dollars. A Thailand researcher calculated his country's sex trade industry to reap 20 billion dollars annually.

Phil Williams, director of the Ridgway Center for International Security Studies and professor of the Graduate School of Public and International Affairs at the University of Pittsburgh, looks at the issue from a macro view, but concentrates on the market dynamics of the trade. Williams feels a better understanding of market dynamics can facilitate the development of more effective counter-measures that in turn would not only create market barriers but also introduce greater risks and costs into market transactions.