Global synthetic dataset analysis
Industry sector: Domestic Work
Trafficking in the domestic sector
In CTDC data, 4,831 victims of trafficking were trafficked into the domestic sector. They represent 34% of the victims trafficked for labour exploitation.
87% of the data comes from case management data, while the rest comes from hotline data.
* To learn more about the size of the domestic sector relative to other labour exploitation sectors, click here (graph Sector of labour exploitation)
* To learn more about the size of labour exploitation relative to other types of exploitation, click here (graph Exploitation type)
Profile of the recorded victims
This profile summarises the victims' most common characteristics, based on the graphs below.
The typical victim is a single female, between 18 and 29 years old. She's not likely to have education above the high school level. She's from South Eastern Asia, and was probably exploited there, but it is also possible for her to have been moved to Western Asia (and perhaps North America). She is most likely to be recruited into trafficking by someone outside of her circle of family and friends, although in the domestic sector friends and family are more likely to be recruiters than in the other types of exploitation. She is mostly controlled by her traffickers through false promises, restricted movement, excessive working hours, confiscation of earnings, and/or psychological abuse. Her exploitation is likely to last approximately one year.
Victims who identify as Transgender/Non-conforming and victims whose gender is not recorded are not included in the computations, as there are not enough data for any significant analysis (CTDC partners are working to improve data availability on this issue). The graph on the right shows the gender of all victims, except those in the domestic sector. In comparison, the domestic sector appears to exploit relatively more women.
Compared to the rest of the dataset, victims in the domestic sector are less likely to be children at the time of data collection.
For all age categories, the majority of identified victims of trafficking in the domestic sector are female. However, males are relatively more numerous in the younger age groups, compared to males in other age groups. For instance, nearly 50% of the 9-11 years old are boys.
In the rest of the dataset, women account for more than 60% of the identified victims in the age categories between 12 and 32 years old. Males are slightly more numerous in the 9-11 and 39-56 age groups.
About 45% of the recorded victims in the domestic sector are between 18 and 29 years old. 12% are between 39 and 47 years old. There seem to be fewer children exploited in the domestic sector than in the rest of the dataset. Other than that, the age profile of people exploited in the domestic sector closely resembles the profile of victims in the wider dataset.
Identified victims of trafficking in the domestic sector are more likely to be single than victims in the rest of the dataset.
Overall, recorded victims in the domestic sector seem to have slightly less schooling than their counterparts in the rest of the dataset. A quarter of them have either no schooling or only primary schooling. They are only 14% in this situation in the rest of the dataset. In addition, victims in the rest of the dataset are 26% to have completed some form of technical training, compared to only 14% in the domestic sector.
Relative to the other victims in the dataset, recorded victims that are exploited in the domestic sector are more likely to be exploited in a region different from their region of origin (43 vs. 26%). However, a majority of them (57%) are exploited in their region of origin.
In CTDC data, 66% of the victims of trafficking in the domestic sector are from South East Asia and 9% are from Eastern Europe. 37% of these victims are exploited in South East Asia, 20% in Western Asia and 16% in North America.
For the purpose of this analysis, region refers to the UN Sub-Regions.
Compared to the rest of the victims recorded in the CTDC dataset, people exploited in the domestic sector are more likely to be recruited by friends and family, i.e. by someone they are likely to trust.
The most common means of control in this sector are false promises, restriction of movement, excessive working hours, confiscation of earnings and psychological abuse.
When comparing with the rest of the dataset, there does not seem to be any large change in general trends. Identified victims in the domestic sector are more likely to be subjected to earnings confiscation, false promises, excessive working hours, and withholding of documents and necessities. However, the use of psychoactive substances seems to be less frequent among these victims, compared to the wider dataset.
There are no marked differences in the trafficking duration between the domestic sector and the rest of the dataset. In both cases, about 60% of the victims were exploited for a year or less. The longest recorded duration for the domestic sector is 42 years.