Article – Stopping human trafficking: MEPs call for more action

Often seen as a modern form of slavery, human trafficking is one of the fastest growing crimes, with new technologies, migration flows and the Covid-19 crisis creating new risks and challenges across the EU.

Human trafficking in the EU

EU countries reported 14,145 victims of human trafficking between 2017 and 2018, of which 72% were women and girls, according to a European Commission report. Children accounted for nearly a quarter (22%) of all registered victims. However, the actual number of victims could be far higher due to the lack of consistent and comparable data.

More than half (60%) of registered victims were trafficked for sexual exploitation; 15% for other types of forced labour and 15% for other reasons, such as begging, organ removal or domestic servitude. Nearly half (49%) are from an EU country.

Almost three quarters of the traffickers registered were male, with the majority of them EU citizens.