Thanks for posting this. It will hopefully educate people as to what is really going on and the huge problem that we face. The trafficking has increased 600% within 2 years! My question is that I have heard that the UN is complicit in what we are trying to stop. So who is putting this report out? There must be good people as there are in other org. that we know have been infiltrated into them to turn them into money making trafficking businesses while people think they are still dogooders. It was even shocking to me to know how the numbers have increased. So very scary. Thanks and an Upvoat4U

here is a link to the full report, although it's all in Italian: http://www.italy.iom.int/sites/default/files/news-documents/RAPPORTO_OIM_Vittime_di_tratta_0.pdf

This article is related to PG as it is about current-day transnational trafficking/kidnapping of children for the purpose of sexual abuse/ sexual exploitation. This article details the large and increasing number of people, largely female and largely children, who are at hugely increased risk of human trafficking/ child sexual slavery as a result of their refugee status.

From the article:

Very often the young women and children have been victims of sexual violence during their journey; they have experienced serious trauma and suffer from psychological distress.

Most victims are young and often underage, between 13 and 24 years old. (In 2016, there was a decrease in the age of the youngest victims of trafficking.)

Quoted from article:

"Rome — Over the past three years, IOM Italy has seen an almost 600 per cent increase in the number of potential sex trafficking victims arriving in Italy by sea. This upward trend has continued during the first six months of 2017, with most victims arriving from Nigeria.

"This is one of the key findings of a new report published by IOM, the UN Migration Agency, Human Trafficking through the Central Mediterranean Route, which was released in Italian this week (21 July) by IOM’s Coordination Office for the Mediterranean in Rome. An English version will be available soon.

Among other findings, the report states that sexual exploitation increasingly involves younger girls – often minors – who are already subject to violence and abuse on their way to Europe. IOM estimates that 80 per cent of girls arriving from Nigeria – whose numbers have soared from 1,454 in 2014 to 11,009 in 2016 – are potential victims of trafficking for sexual exploitation.

The report is based on data collected by IOM at landing sites and in reception centres for migrants in the regions of southern Italy, where the Organization carries out identification of potential victims and assists those who, once identified, decide to escape their exploiters and accept IOM support.

"Trafficking is a transnational crime that devastates the lives of thousands of people and is the cause of untold suffering," said Federico Soda, Director of the IOM Coordinating Office for the Mediterranean. "This is a theme we have been working on for years, committing to protect, prevent and collaborate with the authorities dealing with organized crime.'"