Youngsters, little more then children, incarcerated and tried like adults, are being charged as 'smugglers' upon their arrival in Italy. While the real human traffickers remain in Libya. The Italian news agency ANSA has collected some of their stories.
The International Organization for Migration IOM has assisted over 11,000 migrants in Libya during the last two years. They include more than 1,600 victims of abuse by traffickers, sexual exploitation, forced labor and extortion.
The European Union and Morocco have agreed to renew a partnership on immigration aimed at fighting human trafficking following the rise of "new" and "very violent" strategies adopted by criminal networks with the tragedy of Melilla on June 24. The decision was announced by the European Commission on July 8.
Human smugglers often subject migrants to extreme violence, torture, rape and kidnapping. Authorities take little action to persecute these crimes, according to a new report by the UN Office on Drugs and Crime.
The southern Italian region of Calabria has obtained about one million euros to fund a project to fight human trafficking as well as sexual and labor exploitation, begging, arranged marriages, organ trafficking.
Rights groups have warned about increasing human trafficking as the pandemic pushes many vulnerable individuals to the brink. They say that despite closed borders, people are crossing illegally into China and Myanmar.
Following the April 11 release of Bija, an alleged Libyan trafficker who has been accused of crimes against humanity by the UN, several migrants told InfoMigrants about their experiences at the hands of this feared boss of the Libyan coast guard in Zaouia.
A man sentenced to 25 years in prison in Greece for human trafficking was arrested in Italy this week. He reportedly smuggled migrants from Turkey to Greece.
Two Italian citizens have been sentenced to more than two years in prison on migrant trafficking charges. Police had found six migrants hidden in their car at the border between Croatia and Slovenia in September.
"Traded Children" (Handelsware Kind) is a new documentary from Germany’s public broadcaster ARD / RBB. It investigates the story behind the trafficking of minors and young adults who are being regularly traded like goods from Vietnam to Europe.
A British court has heard accounts from the families of 39 people who were found dead in the back of a lorry near London in October 2019. Four men convicted of manslaughter face possible life sentences.
The pair were part of a gang of human traffickers who offered a "VIP" service to smuggle migrants into the UK. Prosecutors labelled them as "unscrupulous" and "greedy."