Experts from the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) warned on Tuesday that the fight against human trafficking is stagnating as convictions for these crimes decline globally.
In its ‘Global Report on Trafficking in Persons 2022’, the UNODC has lamented a decline in the number of «identified» victims, especially in the face of increased vulnerabilities and exploitation. Thus, it has pointed to a clear decline in convictions between 2017 and 2020 and noted that in this period of time they have gone from 8,300 to about 2,300 worldwide.
A total of 47,000 victims were registered throughout 2020, 39 percent of whom were forced labor or sexually exploited. In addition, 10 percent were forced to commit crimes.
Women and girls are most affected by human trafficking, although the number of men and boys has increased in recent years. In the first year of the pandemic, the number of victims fell by 11 percent, to an average of one person per 100,000 inhabitants. According to UNODC data, this was mainly due to restrictions imposed by the coronavirus, but also to reduced police and judicial work.
However, the office’s executive director, Ghada Waly, has lamented that this has led to increased vulnerabilities and reduced the ability to «rescue victims and bring criminals to justice.» «We cannot allow crises to encourage exploitation. We need support, especially from developed countries, to respond to these threats and to identify and protect victims,» he added.
In this sense, the report highlights that many victims end up in the hands of human trafficking networks due to the consequences of climate change. He also warned that «war and human trafficking go hand in hand».
Finally, he has indicated that between 2014 and 2015 the number of Ukrainian victims was around 5 percent, a risk now much higher due to the Russian invasion of the territory, which has forced millions of people to leave the country.
Source: (EUROPA PRESS)
