Trafficking Human Beings in the European Union A Europol perspective

The last 5 years has seen an increase in the number of victims trafficked into the EU, particularly through and from the Russian Federation, Ukraine, Central and South Eastern Europe. Other parts of the world which provide trafficked victims are the Far East, West Africa and Latin America. The victims originate mainly from countries that are economically disadvantaged in comparison with the West but given the distances involved most victims of trafficking identified in the EU are from the regions described above.Poverty and the hope or expectations of a more prosperous future are the
vulnerabilities that are exploited by the traffickers when they set out to recruit or lure their victims. It is therefore clear that there are many potential sources of victims around the world. The sometimes hidden nature of the crime combined with a gap in the law enforcement intelligence picture makes it difficult to estimate exactly how many victims are trafficked into and within the European Union. There are reasons to believe that they should be counted in hundreds of thousands.