27th Parliamentary-Intelligence Security Forum – Human Trafficking and its Role in Sponsoring Terrorism
Ms. Anne Basham highlighted the direct link between human trafficking, terrorism, and global security. She began with the story of a young Yazidi girl enslaved by ISIS to illustrate how terrorist groups use sexual slavery as a funding mechanism. She stressed that trafficking is not only a human rights abuse but a multibillion-dollar criminal enterprise that generates an estimated $236 billion annually and affects nearly 50 million people worldwide. Unlike smuggling, trafficking involves repeated exploitation through force, fraud, or coercion, making it uniquely profitable and difficult to dismantle.
She argued that modern slavery is increasingly tied to state-sponsored exploitation, particularly in China, North Korea, and Taliban-controlled areas. She pointed to the mass detention and forced labor of Uyghurs in China and child labor in cobalt mining in the Democratic Republic of Congo, noting that Chinese and Russian companies dominate much of the supply chain. With over 70 percent of the world’s cobalt coming from the DRC and large portions processed in China, she warned that global demand for batteries and clean energy technologies risks fueling forced labor unless supply chains are reformed.
She emphasized bipartisan efforts such as the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act in the United States and similar measures in Europe, describing them as important steps toward accountability. Basham also called for stronger use of tools like Global Magnitsky sanctions to target traffickers and state sponsored actors financially, noting that such mechanisms are underutilized in combating human trafficking. She concluded that following the money, strengthening sanctions, reforming supply chains, and mobilizing grassroots and business pressure are essential to weakening terrorist financing and protecting vulnerable populations, especially children.
