A/HRC/32/41 often disproportionately affected by the loss of livelihoods during displacement (see A/HRC/23/44, para. 46). 19. Conflict-related violence, such as sexual violence, can itself be a driver of forced internal displacement, which in turn increases vulnerability to further exploitation, including through trafficking. For instance, sexual violence by armed groups has forced ethnic minority women and girls in remote rural areas away from their communities and placed them at greater risk of trafficking within the country as well as overseas. 7 Additionally, worsening security situations and overcrowded camps with inadequate basic services cause some internally displaced persons to risk crossing borders in an irregular manner in search of employment, putting themselves at high risk of exploitation because of their lack of legal status.8 Military attacks on camps further worsens displacement and causes undocumented internally displaced persons, including women and unaccompanied children, to flee their camps, exposing them to the risk of being exploited or trafficked. 9 Trafficking of refugees and asylum seekers fleeing conflict 20. For the millions of people who are forced to flee their country because of armed conflict, the journey of escape has become increasingly expensive and hazardous, with a tangible risk of trafficking-related exploitation. Sometimes these dangers relate to the available paths of escape. Throughout their journey and at their destination, migrants, including refugees and asylum seekers, are highly vulnerable to physical violence, sexual assault, extortion and trafficking, as well as detention by national authorities. 10 The journey of female migrants and unaccompanied children travelling through the Horn of Africa is particularly hazardous. Thousands have disappeared, presumably abducted for purposes of exploitation.11 21. Refugees and asylum seekers are vulnerable to trafficking. Refugees fleeing the conflict in the Syrian Arab Republic through Lebanon and Turkey often become subject to trafficking-related exploitation, including child labour, forced prostitution, forced and early marriage and exploitation and begging. 12 Refugees and asylum seekers, including numerous unaccompanied children from the Sudan and Somalia, have been kidnapped or lured from refugee camps or while en route, sold on and subsequently held captive in Libya or the Sinai desert for purposes of exploitation through extortion.13 22. After fleeing conflict, children may be compelled to work to sustain themselves and/or to support their families. Unaccompanied children often have no choice but to work 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 6 See S/2015/203, para. 20 and Luz Estella Nagel, “How conflict and displacement fuel human trafficking and abuse of vulnerable groups: the case of Colombia and opportunities for real action and innovative solutions”, Groningen Journal of International Law, vol. 1, No. 2 (2013). See also Sonja Wolte, “Armed conflict and trafficking in women” German Agency for Technical Cooperation, 2004, pp. 21-21. Kachin Women’s Association Thailand, “Pushed to the brink: conflict and human trafficking on the Kachin-China border”, June 2013. Ibid. Regional Mixed Migration Secretariat, Abused and Abducted: The Plight of Female Migrants from the Horn of Africa in Yemen, Mixed Migration Research Series, Study 7, October 2014. Ibid. See also Human Rights Watch, “Yemen’s torture camps: abuse of migrants by human traffickers in a climate of impunity”, May 2014. See, for example, United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) and Save the Children, Small Hands, Heavy Burden: How the Syria Conflict is Driving More Children into the Workforce (Amman, 2015); Secours catholique-Caritas France and Olivier Peyroux, Trafficking in Human Beings in Conflict and Post-Conflict Situations (2015). UNHCR, Smuggling and Trafficking from the East and Horn of Africa: Progress Report (2013).