UN to Step Up Fight Against Human Trafficking

The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime announced on Monday that it is stepping up its fight against human trafficking and migrant smuggling while stating that combating child trafficking will be a top priority.

It highlighted the links between trafficking and smuggling, and other forms of organised crime such as cybercrime, money laundering, drug trafficking, firearms trafficking, and corruption.

To address this, UNODC plans to expand its on-the-ground presence by deploying resident experts to countries most in need, while increasing its commitment to sustainable development and gender equality.

Chief of UNODC’s human trafficking and migrant smuggling section, Ilias Chatzis, warned that global challenges such as war, large migration and refugee flows, cybercrime, climate change, and the COVID-19 pandemic are now threatening the progress made in the past decades.

“Financial crises, armed conflicts, and forced displacement, catalysed by the pandemic, had strained justice systems, significantly reducing investigations, prosecutions, victim identification, and protection,” UNODC noted, adding that digital technologies have further exacerbated the situation.

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