Quantifying recruitment fees

The recruitment fees that victims pay to recruiters vary greatly compared to the average.^[1] This could reflect real-world circumstances but may also be related to issues that arose in the data collection process, like data entry errors or inaccurate currency conversion. To address this discrepancy, 5 per cent of cases with the highest recruitment fees were subtracted from the analysis.^[2]

After these adjustments, the average fees that trafficked persons pay to secure their job placement are close to USD 1,300. On average, victims of sexual exploitation paid recruiters USD 1,455, about USD200 more than the average fees paid by victims of forced labour (USD 1,256). Victims exploited in agriculture, domestic work, and construction more frequently pay high recruitment fees.

On average, trafficking victims who are controlled by debt bondage pay recruiters about USD 300 more than those who are not. Victims controlled by debt bondage and exploited in Africa paid recruiters close to USD 1,700, whereas victims from Europe and Asia paid about USD 1,440 and USD 1,200, respectively.

^[1] The data story on Victims who paid recruitment fees briefly defines what we consider recruitment fees.

^[2] For methodological details, please refer to the ILO and IOM joint article on Recruitment fees paid by victims of trafficking (forthcoming). For a detailed explanation of the data, please check the codebook of the Global Synthetic Victim-Perpetrator Dataset. For a closer look at the victim-perpetrator relationship, check the Perpetrators of trafficking data story.