CORRUPTION

Interview with Dr. Myria Vassiliadou
Trafficking for sexual exploitation remains the most widespread
form of THB (Trafficking in Human Beings).
International Affairs Forum
of May, identifies a number of trends, the most
important of which is as sad as it is worrying:
trafficking for sexual exploitation remains the
most widespread form of THB. This is consistent
with data from Europol, Interpol, and the
United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime. If
trafficking for sexual exploitation remains the
most dominant form of trafficking in human
beings, it means that we have not been able
to eradicate this phenomenon or even reduce
the number of victims. Another trend the report
notes is that there are many cases of trafficking
for the purpose of criminal activities. Basically,
people are trafficked, and then forced to either
steal or engage in all sorts of benefit fraud, as
well as other kinds of criminal activities. One
example of trafficking for the purpose of criminal
activities is sham marriages: women who are EU
nationals are trafficked and forced to marry third
country nationals, who can then receive benefits,
passports, and resident permits within the EU.
We have also seen a lot of trafficking of children
for the purpose of forced begging. These children
are snatched from their families—or sometimes
their families are involved—and they are forced
to beg on the streets. There are thousands of
reported stories of trafficked children forced to
beg, and it is almost like a modern version of
Oliver Twist.
Our report also refers to the links between THB
and the Internet: based on the information we
have, including information from Europol, a
large number of victims are recruited online.
It no longer bears any similarity to the kind of
recruitment we had twenty or thirty years ago,
where a woman was snatched and forced to
provide sexual services against her will. Now, we
find that a number of people who apply online to
get a job, or to have any kind of opportunity, end
up becoming trafficked in the process.
Moreover, our report notes the role of trafficking
in the migratory process. Some of the vulnerable
people migrating to Europe are victims of
trafficking. The International Organization for
Migration (IOM) identified almost five thousand
Nigerian women and girls who were trafficked
from Nigeria via Libya to Italy; these women and
girls were then trafficked for sexual exploitation.
These are horrifying numbers and situations.
Furthermore, as highlighted in the first report
on the progress in the area of THB, we have
evidence that the migration crisis has been
exploited by the traffickers to target the most
vulnerable of migrants: children.
You mentioned the new use of Internet
recruitment in identifying potential victims of
human trafficking. Have there been other new
trends that we have not seen in the past?
I think the issue of engagement in criminal
activities is relatively new, along with the
trafficking of people for the purpose of sham
marriages. These appear to be recent trends
within the past few years. The issue of children
being forced to beg is also relatively recent.
Additionally, there appear to be reports on
the sale of children through illegal adoptions.
Sometimes, pregnant women who are trafficked
are forced to give their babies away. These
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