A person is holding her hand up as if to protect herself against an attacker

In 2022, the number of registered victims of trafficking in human beings in the EU was 10 093. There were 8 064 suspected traffickers and 2 097 convicted traffickers. 

Nearly two-thirds (63%) of registered victims of human trafficking were women or girls. The share of women and girls decreased from the previous years (68% both in 2020 and 2021). Meanwhile, less than a quarter of suspected and convicted traffickers were women in 2022 (23% and 22%, respectively). 

Forced labour prevalence matches that of sexual exploitation for the first time

In 2022, registered victims trafficked for sexual exploitation and those trafficked for forced labour constituted approximately 82% of all trafficked victims. For the first time, the number of registered victims exploited for forced labour or services (3 990) came close to the number of victims sexually exploited (4 014). The number of registered victims that were trafficked for other purposes, such as organ removal, benefit fraud, criminal activities, forced begging and others, reached 1 699 (18% of all trafficking victims). 

Forms of exploitation for registered victims of trafficking in human beings, %, 2008-2022. Chart. See link to full dataset below

Source dataset: crim_thb_vexp

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Methodological notes

  • Trafficking in human beings, as defined in the art. 2 of the Directive 2011/36/EU is a grave violation of human rights, a crime against the person, the goal of which is the exploitation of the person. Trafficking does not require the crossing of borders and can have many exploitative purposes.
  • The number of persons reported to be involved in trafficking in human beings can widely vary across the EU, even relative to population size, due to different approaches to reporting data in police, prosecutors and court systems, to different levels of transposition of the Directive across the EU countries and different criminal justice responses to trafficking in human beings. 
  • Registered victims include persons who have been identified by the relevant formal authority or by other national and non-national authorities.
  • Data on victims, suspected traffickers and convicted traffickers show totals for responding countries. As some EU countries had not reported data for some years, the observed trend has to be interpreted with caution.

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