Trafficking in human beings for sexual and other purposes - Polisen

3. Criminal Development15stayed in Sweden for varying periods, or were domiciledin the country. They had a command of Swedish,and sometimes also English, and had a goodknowledge of Swedish society.Europol reportAccording to the official Europol situation report onhuman trafficking from 2011, the human traffickinggangs uncovered in other parts of Europe, are usuallyon a smaller scale 13 . These gangs either act independentlyor collaborate with other criminal groups.Some criminal groups, especially those that are Albanian,Nigerian and Roma, are family- or clan-basedwith complex loyalties connecting the perpetrators.This is often very challenging for the police when itcomes to getting information about or from thosepersons. The situation is similar in Sweden, wherepeople of Roma descent appear both as victims andperpetrators in relation to all forms of human trafficking.Nigerian human trafficking networks havealso been trying to establish themselves in Sweden,but not to the same extent as in many other countriesin Europe.3.1.2 Victims of human trafficking forsexual purposesAccording to the latest report on human traffickingby the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime(UNODC), 79% of global human trafficking is forsexual purposes. The report indicates that the majorityof these victims of human trafficking are girls andwomen 14 .In its latest report on organised crime from 2010,The Globalization of Crime – A TransnationalThreat Assessment, UNODC also reports that morethan 140,000 victims of human trafficking for sexual13 “Trafficking in Human Beings in the European Union,” Europol2011.14 “Global Report on Trafficking in Human Beings”, UNODC,2009.purposes are exploited every day in Europe. On anannual basis, almost 70,000 new victims are drawninto this trade in Europe and, according to the report,there are no signs of any reduction in the number ofvictims 15 .The fact that, globally, the majority of the victimsof human trafficking for sexual purposes are girls andwomen is also reflected in the Swedish statistics. Since1999, all known victims of human trafficking for sexualpurposes, or procuring/aggravated procuringhave been girls and women between the ages of 13and 45. In cases where men or boys have been victimsof human trafficking in Sweden, it has been for purposesother than sexual, such as theft, begging andforced labour.In 2011, the majority of foreign girls and womenwho were subject to human trafficking and crimerelated to that in Sweden, belonged to minoritygroups in their homeland, often had difficulties gainingemployment or came from a home environment inwhich circumstances had been bad, involving assault,sexual abuse and social exclusion. Many peoplelacked any awareness of how Swedish society functionsor of any opportunities for seeking help andprotection from the police, social authorities andNGOs. None of the women and girls understood orspoke Swedish, and only a few had any command ofEnglish.Different experiences and studies in Sweden andinternationally show that victims of human traffickingfor sexual purposes frequently do not trust thepublic authorities and are unwilling to be interviewedby the police, or to testify against theirattackers. They may also not trust the available interpreterssince they may come from the same backgroundas the victim or come from the same location,ethnic group or country. This means that the victimmay feel uneasy about her/his personal safety, and15 “The Globalization of Crime - A Transnational Threat Assessment”,UNODC, 2010.