Most trafficking victims in EU are European citizens

WARSAW, (AP):

Experts say that more than 60 per cent of people trafficked for sex or forced labour within the European Union are EU citizens.

EU statistics, the bloc's first on human trafficking, for the years 2008-2010 show that most victims come from Romania and Bulgaria, although trafficking from outside the EU is on the rise, with most victims coming from Nigeria.

EU and police experts from across Europe said during the "Putting Victims First" conference that opened in Warsaw yesterday that trafficking is on the rise. They called it "modern-day slavery" to which Europe should respond with stronger legislation that would prosecute traffickers and a better effort to recognise victims and guarantee their rights to protection and compensation.

TREATY SIGNED IN 2008

A treaty that took effect in 2008 in the EU needs to be stepped up to make law-enforcement officers as well as ordinary citizens more responsive to the problem, the experts said, while NGOs working with the victims should be given more funds.

In the three years covered, more than 7,000 women and girls and more than 2,000 men and boys from within the EU were identified or presumed as victims, compared with more than 1,200 females and 94 males from Africa.

In 2012, some 48 per cent of identified cases were of labour trafficking while 21 per cent involved sex trafficking which was significantly lower than in the previous year, he said.