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Direct Link to Full 25-Page UNODC
Report:
TRAFFICKING IN PERSONS: ANALYSIS ON
EUROPE
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“Lives
Are For Sale in Europe”, Warns UN Office on Drugs & Crime
VIENNA,
16 October 2009 (UNODC). In the run up to EU anti-trafficking day
(18 October), the United Nations Office on Drugs
and Crime (UNODC) has
issued a report showing that trafficking in persons is an
under-detected
crime in Europe.
The report, based on UNODC’s Global
Report on Trafficking in Persons
(launched in February 2009), says less people (1
in 100,000) are being
convicted for human trafficking in
Europe than for rare crimes like
kidnapping. Only 9,000 victims were reported in 2006 – around 30 times less
than the total estimated number. “Perhaps
police are not finding the
traffickers and victims because they are not looking for
them”, said the
UNODC Executive Director Antonio Maria Costa.
The report shows a high degree of internal trafficking, both
domestically
within European countries and regionally
within the European Union
(predominantly from South-eastern to Western Europe).
At the same time,
European victims represent just a fraction of the total number of
victims
detected in Europe. Recent trends show a
steady decline of flows from
traditional sources, and a marked increase
in victims from China and
Central Asia.
Most identified victims of human trafficking in Europe
are young women,
trafficked for sexual exploitation. Around 10% of trafficking
victims in
Europe are children. There are also detected cases of men in forced labour,
like construction and agriculture. “Lives should not be
for sale or for
rent on a continent that prohibits slavery and forced labour,
and prides
itself on upholding human dignity”, said Mr. Costa.
Most of the prosecuted traffickers are locals,
predominantly men. Where
foreign traffickers are present, they are often of the same nationality
as
the victims. Curiously, for a crime where
most victims are women, the
number of prosecuted female offenders is higher for human trafficking
than
for other crimes. “We need to better understand why people
traffic their
kin, and why women exploit other women”, said the head of UNODC.
On a positive note, the report shows that in the past six years
since the
UN Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and
Punish Trafficking in Persons,
Especially Women and Children came into
force in December 2003, most
European countries have criminalized trafficking for the purpose of
sexual
exploitation and forced labour.
It also highlights the progress that has been made to improve collection of
data on human trafficking within the European Union.
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