Traffickers increasingly work through technology, using fake job advertisements, fake relationships, fake profiles and live video streaming to attract, recruit, transport and exploit their victims across the internet, smartphones and platforms such as Facebook and WhatsApp. This opens new opportunities for traffickers while creating new challenges for law enforcement. Yet the role of technology in trafficking in Pakistan had never been debated or explored academically with primary or secondary research data. This qualitative study therefore interviewed 13 adult victims in two Pakistani provinces, Punjab and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, using a phenomenological approach, which explores people's life stories and lived experiences under particular conditions, together with face-to-face in-depth interviews between November 2023 and January 2024. Braun and Clarke's thematic analysis produced four main themes, following the sequence victims experienced: recruitment approaches, transportation process, exploitation process and mental health consequences, plus ten sub-themes. The authors conclude that traffickers use technology extensively across all phases, from first contact through to sending videos to victims' families to extort payment.
Research Objectives
- Examine the lived experiences of trafficking victims in Pakistan and the role of technology in their victimisation.
- Identify how traffickers use the internet, mobile phones and social media in recruitment, transportation and exploitation.
- Document victims' mental health consequences and their later social media behaviour.
- Provide evidence for law enforcement, legislative bodies, policymakers and civil society, and contribute to SDG 2030 targets 8.7, 5.2, 16.2 and 17.6.
Methodology
- Qualitative phenomenological design reported per COREQ, in Punjab and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, documented trafficking hot spots.
- Purposive and snowball sampling: 29 victims reached through security agency and community references, 17 met the technology criterion, 13 participated.
- Face-to-face interviews by the first author, 4 November 2023 to 22 January 2024, each 60 to 90 minutes, audio-recorded with consent.
- Interview guide validated by a Pakistani trafficking expert and pilot interviews; collection continued until saturation.
- Braun and Clarke's six-step thematic analysis; ethics approval UKM PPI/111/8/JEP-2023-680.
Key Findings
- Participants were 11 men and 2 women; eight reported victimisation between ages 19 and 25.
- Financial motivation was the main factor behind recruitment for 10 of 13 participants; several named close companions: a relative, a neighbour, a friend, a stepmother.
- Many participants said Facebook, WhatsApp and fake job advertisements played a primary role in recruitment; some described first contact on Facebook before moving to WhatsApp.
- Eleven were transported by local buses and cars, seven from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Punjab and Islamabad to Quetta and on to the Taftan border with Iran. WhatsApp carried communication, live locations and identification photographs.
- In exploitation, traffickers confiscated passports, imposed low-wage labour, bought and sold victims, forced sex work, and sent abuse videos and video calls to families to extort payment.
- Participants reported fear, disturbed sleep, memory problems and suicidal thoughts, yet most remained active on social media with behaviour unchanged, calling it important and economical.
Recommendations
- Law enforcement should build investigative capacity around Facebook, named in recruitment, and WhatsApp, described at recruitment, transit and exploitation.
- Legislative bodies and policymakers should raise awareness of the websites and applications used in trafficking, which the authors argue improves investigation.
- Prevention should account for recruitment by relatives, neighbours and friends, not only strangers.
- Further research is needed beyond the two provinces studied.
Key Takeaways
- Technology was present across every phase these victims described, from first contact to extortion, not only in online recruitment.
- Continued social media use after victimisation suggests advice to withdraw may not be taken up; safer use is more realistic.
- The findings concern Pakistan only, but the pattern of Facebook and WhatsApp recruitment, fake job offers and local transport is relevant to Thailand and ASEAN.
References
Khan, Z., Kamaluddin, M. R., Manap, J., Rajaratnam, S., Mohd, M., Chong, I. M., Yousaf, F. N., & Subardjo, R. Y. S. (2025). Exploring the role of technology in human trafficking in Pakistan: A qualitative study of lived experiences of victims. PLOS ONE, 20(3), Article e0320088. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0320088
Full text (Open Access): https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0320088
