Southeast Europe, origin and destination of human trafficking

The UN Office on Drugs and Crime, U n PERHAPC published yesterday (07.01), the global report of trafficked human beings. It covers 142 countries and takes a look at the world's models and trafficking flows, both regional and national, based on cases of trafficking detected between 2014 and 2016. It's been ten years since the UN has collected systematic data on the trafficking of human beings. Deutsche Welle released sub-regions of interest, Western and South Europe and Central and Southeast Europe from the report.

Western and South European

Victims Account: Most of the victims trafficked in this region are women (52 per cent), but the percentage of trafficked men has steadily increased. The UK has reported in 2016 increasing the number of trafficked men, while Germany and Austria dropped their number. The share of trafficked children is 25 per cent of the number of victims and has not changed since 2014.

Form of exploitation: Trafficking in sexual exploitation continues to remain the most common form, while trafficking for forced labour accounts for a third of the victims. Two victims discovered have been trafficked for organ removal. Belgium and the United Kingdom have reported more victims of forced labour than of sexual exploitation. Women make up 72 per cent of victims trafficked for sexual exploitation. Among male victims trafficked for sexual exploitation, the trend has been more men than trafficked boys. Other forms of exploitation have been forced crime, street begging, and false marriages. In 2016, 15 victims trafficked for forced crime have been discovered in Spain, in Greece 11 victims of forced begging on the streets, and in Cyprus, 17 victims of trafficking for false marriage.

Traffickingrs AccountMost of the alleged, captured, convicted traffickers are males. In 310 people convicted in eight countries for sexual exploitation, 76 per cent were male. Most of them have been foreign citizens in the country where they received the sentence, mainly coming from Southeast Europe or other Central and South European countries.

Trafficking Currents: As in the global trend, the discovery of national victims has been on the rise. In cross-border currents the main origin of the trafficking flow remains Southeast Europe. Some Western countries, especially the United Kingdom, have reported being victims of Baltic countries. Western and southern Europe is discovering more and more victims coming from other regions like sub-Saharan Africa, mainly from West Africa. Most of the victims from Asia are from the Philippines, Thailand, and fewer from China and Vietnam.

Central and Southeast European

Victims Account: Male victims are less than on the global average in this subregion. In five victims four are women. But in some countries like Lithuania, Romania and Slovakia, the number of male victims has been the same as that of women victims. Child victims have been on the rise in Central and Southeast Europe, especially the number of trafficked girls. Several countries such as Bosnia and Herzegovina, Hungary and Romania have reported the discovery of more child victims than adults. Throughout the region, the men's share in the number of victims has decreased, but the share of children victims of trafficking has increased.

Form of exploitation: 70 per cent of the victims have been trafficked for sexual exploitation. A third for forced labour or other “ ” goals. Throughout the region, the number of victims trafficked for forced labour from 23 per cent to 17 per cent compared to 2014 has dropped. For sexual exploitation, the percentage has increased from 65 to 70. Most of them were women, mostly women. In Hungary the figure has been greater for girls than women in this form of trafficking. Men have been fewer in number. Male trafficking in this region affects boys more than men. For forced labor, trafficking affects more men. Five cases of organ removal of trafficking have been reported from 2014 to 2017. In victims trafficked for purposes “other”, children's sale, begging on the street and criminal activities are mentioned. Trafficking in begging in the streets is seen both in the Western Balkans and in other parts of the region. Trafficking in criminal activities has been reported in both the Western Balkans and the Baltic. Also reported are women and pregnant girls who are trafficked for child sales.

Traffic profile: Most of the traffickers investigated, prosecuted, or convicted are men. They were mainly citizens of the country where the sentence was served, or of the neighboring country. Traffickers' data shows the difference in two different sub-regions Western and South Europe and Central and Southeast Europe. The first is primarily the destination of trafficking, and the second is the origin of trafficking. The repatriation data has shown about trafficking currents from Central and Southeast Europe to Eastern Europe. These regional currents have been discovered in large quantities, while it is difficult to find victims from Central and Southeast Europe in other parts of the world. This subregion is also a destination for trafficking victims. Many victims discovered are citizens of the same place they're discovered. Trafficking currents originating in Eastern Europe, including Ukraine, head for Poland or other Eastern European countries. Chekhia and Poland are destinationine for victims who originate in Southeast Europe.

The level of detection of victims in this region is the highest in the world, after Central America. These countries have more per capita victims than Western and Eastern European countries, but the level of punishments is much lower than them. But the level of punishment is greater than in other parts of the world. / DW/