Street children, who have often run away from violence or abuse in their own families, are dependent on the strangers they meet for advice, job opportunities, shelter and support.
Sadly this is often abused, with children forced into slave labour or the sex industry.
Women and girls are more vulnerable than males. Although men and boys are also trafficked, women and girls are most in demand for work in the unregulated sex industry throughout Asia.
In poor communities, women are less likely to have an education, an understanding of their rights, or the confidence to make decisions concerning their lives.
Bringing women across borders to regions where the language and location is unknown to them is an effective way to further isolate them from their communities and increase their dependency on their traffickers.
Some women decide to go with traffickers, believing their offers of assistance towards a better life. But often, a woman or girl is sent against her will - by husbands, family members or even parents.
Sometimes money is 'loaned' to the family, and the woman is told she must work off this debt before returning.
Children are trafficked to meet a demand for cheap, obedient labour, as well as to feed the underground child sex industry.
Children forced into the sex industry lose their rights, not just to freedom, but to childhood itself. Rescued from brothels, children usually need extensive emotional counselling as well as time to recover physically from the abuse they've received.
While sex with a child is illegal throughout the Asia-Pacific region, often the children are too frightened to press charges and the horrific industry continues.
