U.N. battles for more people-trafficking convictions

VIENNA (Reuters) - Global efforts to stop the multi-billion-dollar business of trafficking in people are being hampered by perceptions that it is a soft crime unlikely to be punished, the head of the U.N. drugs and crime office told Reuters.

Of the 159 countries who have ratified a 2000 U.N. protocol to prevent and combat such trafficking, 15 did not record a single conviction between 2010 and 2012, compared with 16 countries between 2007 and 2010, he said.