ROME/GENEVA, OCTOBER 18 – Marking EU Anti-Trafficking Day (18/10), IOM in Italy announced that the number of potential female victims of trafficking across the Mediterranean from the Côte d’Ivoire is increasing. Based on an analysis of migratory flows along the Central Mediterranean route, IOM Italy published a briefing indicating that in the last year, IOM’s anti-trafficking teams have detected an increase in the presence of women and girls from the Côte d’Ivoire at the main landing points in Italy.
The initiative is part of a mobilization of IOM offices across Europe to raise awareness and reinforce the tools needed to fight the scourge of trafficking in human beings which has ensnared tens of thousands of victims across Europe.
Ola Henrikson, Director of IOM’s Regional Office for the EU, said that while much progress has been made in the fight against the crime of human trafficking, the numbers of victims in Europe are still unacceptably high and the resources made available to assist victims are unevenly distributed.
“Victims of this heinous crime come from within Europe and from third countries. Resources and assistance should be made available to all victims, regardless of their nationality or country of origin,” said Henrikson.
“We need more awareness-raising around this phenomena, more resources to fight against it, and more research and data to inform and improve our policy response,” he added.
According to data released by the Counter-Trafficking Data Collaborative (CTDC), between 2002 and 2018 more than 32,000 European victims of trafficking exploited around the world were identified. In Europe, 29,000 victims were exploited, from various European nationalities and beyond. In both these groups, two in three victims were women. Victims were mainly trafficked for the purpose of sexual exploitation and forced labour.
Established by IOM, the CTDC is the first global data hub on human trafficking which publishes harmonized data from organizations working on counter-trafficking around the world, including IOM. CTDC currently combines the three largest case-level victim of human trafficking datasets into one centralized dataset with information on over 90,000 cases spanning169 nationalities exploited in 172 countries.
IOM’s United Kingdom (UK) office, in cooperation with the London school of Economics, held an event yesterday (17/10) on the role of data in eradicating human trafficking and modern slavery. The event, Making a difference with data: how is data helping end human trafficking and modern slavery?explored global, national and local data on human trafficking and highlighted the important contribution that data can make to inform policy and programming with the goal of ending human trafficking.
IOM offices in Switzerland, Romania, Moldova, Malta, Austria, Portugal, France and Ireland also marked the day through workshops, trainings and awareness-raising activities. (@OuItalia)
