La Strada Documentation Center

Trafficking in Persons to Europe for Sexual Exploitation

Document number
2421
Date
2010
Title
Trafficking in Persons to Europe for Sexual Exploitation
Author/publisher
United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC)
Availability
View/save PDF version of this document
Document type(s)
Research/Study/Analysis,
Keywords
Prostitution; Sex work; Unionisation of sex workers; Clients, Abolitionism; New Abolitionism; Prohibitionism; Regulationism, Women's rights; Women; Sex tourism, Pornography,
Summary
A greater variety of nationalities has been found among human trafficking victims in West and Central Europe than in any other part of the world and most of these victims (84%) were trafficked for the purpose of sexual exploitation. Both the detection rate and the type of exploitation detected are affected by enforcement patterns, however. In 2006, the entire Western Hemisphere only recorde some 150 convictions for human trafficking, which is about the same number as Germany alone. It i difficult to say to what extent this is indicative of a greater problem or whether it is simply a matter of greater vigilance. In recent years, the majority of human trafficking victims detected in Europe have come from the Balkans and the former Soviet Union, in particular Romania, Bulgaria, Ukraine, the Russian Federation and the Republic of Moldova. Victims from at least some of these five countries have also been located in all parts of Europe. But the dominance of these groups appears to be changing as new source countries emerge on the European scene.
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