ADVERTISEMENTAccording to Eurostat, there were 10,793 registered victims of human trafficking in the EU in 2023, an increase of 6.9% compared to the previous year. This is the highest number recorded between 2008 and 2023.
In 2023, there were 24 registered victims per million inhabitants in the EU, up from 23 per million inhabitants in 2022. Luxembourg, Greece, the Netherlands, Austria, and Sweden reported the highest rates, while Croatia, Lithuania, and the Czech Republic reported the lowest rates.
“Higher rates could be due to the judiciary and social system’s increased ability to identify victims,” stated Eurostat. Luxembourg, for example, recently reported increased identification of victims thanks to a proactive approach by labor inspectors who underwent mandatory training on human trafficking.
Trafficking in humans can involve various exploitative purposes and does not require crossing borders. In 2023, 28% of registered victims in the EU came from the reporting country, 7.9% from other EU countries, and 64.1% from non-EU countries.
Female Victims Outnumber Male
Nearly two-thirds of registered human trafficking victims were women or girls, with this percentage increasing by 0.5 percentage points from 2022.
Sexual exploitation was the most common form of exploitation in 2023, affecting 43.8% of victims. However, this number has decreased since 2008. Victims trafficked for forced labor or services have shown an increase since 2019.
Organ removal and other forms of exploitation (such as benefit fraud, criminal activities, and forced begging) made up 20.2% of cases in 2023.
Female traffickers are comparatively rare, as less than a quarter of suspected and convicted traffickers were women (24% and 23%, respectively).
The number of suspected traffickers increased by 5% in 2023 compared to the previous year, while the number of convicted traffickers rose by 10.1%. Human trafficking convictions increased in 15 out of 26 EU countries.
