Europe’s migration crisis is being used by criminal gangs to force more people into sex work and other types of slavery, according to an EU report on human trafficking. Children have become a preferred target for traffickers, the report warns, amid growing concern over the fate of unaccompanied child refugees who have disappeared from official view since arriving in Europe.Almost 96,000 unaccompanied children claimed asylum in Europe in 2015, about one-fifth of the total number of child refugees.
“Organised crime groups choose to traffic children as they are easy to recruit and quick to replace, they can also keep under their control child victims relatively cheaply and discreetly,” according to an EU working document .
Key trends noted in the report include:
There were 15 846 ‘registered victims’ (both identified and presumed) of trafficking in the EU
Trafficking for the purpose of sexual exploitation is still the most widespread form, followed by labour exploitation. The rest were registered as victims of trafficking for other forms of exploitation.
Over three quarters of the registered victims were women.
At least 15 % of the registered victims were children.
65 % of registered victims were EU citizens.
The top five EU countries of citizenship for registered victims in 2013-2014 were Romania, Bulgaria, the Netherlands, Hungary, and Poland. These are the same countries as for the years 2010-2012.
The top five non-EU countries of citizenship were Nigeria, China, Albania, Vietnam and Morocco. 13
