Switzerland records 200 new victims of human trafficking

Around 200 new victims of human trafficking across Switzerland in 2024 Keystone-SDA

The Swiss Platform against Human Trafficking identified 201 new victims of human trafficking throughout Switzerland in 2024.

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A total of 483 victims were assisted and counselled last year.

The figures have been stable for several years, with a slight upward trend, the Swiss Platform Against Human Trafficking (Plateforme Traite) announced on International Anti-Trafficking Day.

+ A series on nannies and human trafficking in Switzerland

Around a quarter of the newly identified persons were men. The victims came from 54 countries, with most of the newly identified victims in 2024 coming from Nigeria, Colombia and Hungary, the report continued.

Some 114 people were victims of sexual exploitation and 95 people were exploited through labour or forced to commit criminal acts. Some people experienced multiple forms of exploitation.

The identification of victims, as well as their origin, gender and the form of exploitation experienced, depends heavily on the sectors that are monitored, the awareness of the referring agencies and cooperation with specialised victim protection agencies, Plateforme Traite wrote.

Thanks to increasing commitment in various cantons and cooperation with specialised victim protection agencies, the number and diversity of identified cases is increasing, meaning that the figures reflect reality more accurately.

Plateforme Traite calls for more coherence between cantonal and national measures. The Confederation should provide additional financial resources to support the commitment of the cantons and specialised victim protection organisations.

In a post also dated Wednesday from the Federal Office of Police Fedpol on X, it states that the Confederation is committed to long-term and sustainable prevention and awareness-raising work against human trafficking.

It supports corresponding measures by organisations with CHF600,000 annually since 2023.

Translated from French by DeepL/mga

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