The trafficking in human beings involves transversely the whole European territory. Victims come both from East European Countries and non-European ones (such as Nigeria, South American Countries or Eastern Asia). The estimations show that the largest part of the victims are subjected to trafficking with the purpose of sexual exploitation (62% in 2010), while the rest is divided between labour (25%), begging, domestic slavery and other forms of slavery.
The report on human trafficking presented by the European Commission in April 2013 underlines that, while the number of victims trafficked to or within Europe increased by 18% between 2008 and 2010, the number of the sentences and therefore of the traffickers’ arrests decreased by nearly 13%.
The gender issue still proves itself to be determinant: between 2008 and 2010, the number of trafficked women and girls was three times higher than the number of trafficked men. The percentage distribution of victims by gender and age in the last three-years was, respectively: women 68%, men 17%, girls 12% and boys 3%.
The largest part of the identified or alleged victims within the time interval 2008-2010 come from EU member states (61%), followed by African (14%), Asian (6%) and Latino-American victims (5%).
Mainly, victims from Eastern Europe are Rumanian or Bulgarian, while
other victims from the rest of the World mostly come from Nigeria and China.
