The instability in the Balkans , and its location connecting Europe and the Middle East , has spawned an enormous increase in organized criminal activity. Trafficking in human beings is now the third most profitable activity for international criminal gangs, according to the convention. Only illicit arms sales and drug dealing bring in more money. More People Smuggled Trafficking in human beings is now the third most profitable activity for international criminal gangs, according to the convention. Only illicit arms sales and drug dealing bring in more money.
Most people being smuggled are migrants seeking to illegally enter another nation.
Mexicans trying to sneak into the U.S. have been found suffocated in the backs of trucks. Human rights activists claim some 75,000 women from Brazil, a leading exporter of sex slaves, work in European brothels against their will. A UN conference in Thailand in March 2000 estimated that thousands of children are forced to work in Asia's flourishing sex industry. Seventy-two nations have signed a second protocol against trafficking in persons for the sex trade, while 69 countries have signed a treaty against the smuggling of migrants. Once the treaties have been ratified by 40 nations, which in most cases means endorsed by legislatures, they will become international law.