Targeting Child Trafficking: Arrests in Europe

Writes Althea, Content writer, Headline Diplomat eMagazine

Child trafficking is a serious crime that dehumanizes and violates the human rights of children. In Europe, trafficking and exploitation, especially sexual exploitation, of children remain a serious threat to the lives of these vulnerable kids, and the crime is largely underreported. It’s appalling that in 2021 children traffickers are still very much active in Europe. They smuggle underage and vulnerable children from different parts of the world to Europe for exploitation. Many of these victims are used for cheap labor, street crime, and terrorism, while many others are exploited sexually, ending up in brothels and sex clubs.

However, there has been a global effort to eradicate this menace over the years. In Europe, for instance, there has been concerted effort to fight child trafficking, particularly within the EU Member States, and some progress, in the form of numerous arrests, has been made in trying to bring the crime to a halt. As the European Union (EU) and the other Non-Member States continue their effort to eradicate child trafficking, many of the offenders have been arrested and made to face the law, with their illicit businesses dismantled.

In this article, we will highlight some of the child trafficking arrests that have been made over the years in Europe.

April 2021 Arrests

A significant number of arrests of human traffickers were made between March 28 and  April 2, 2021. The operation, called Operation Weka, was coordinated by INTERPOL and involved a collaboration between African and European authorities. These arrests helped in rescuing nearly 500 victims, many of whom were children, while about 88 child trafficking offenders were captured and prosecuted. The operation was made possible by the cooperation of INTERPOL and Europol, with support from other partners. The highlights from these arrests were as follows:

• Morocco played a significant role in the operation, serving as the host of the operational coordination unit and making 49 arrests.
• Spanish authorities received information from morocco, which helped to arrest two traffickers known for facilitating the trafficking of people into Europe.
• Relevant authorities in the Athens airport were alerted to a ‘volley-ball team’ who were into the trafficking of people

October 2020 Arrests

Between October 5 and 11, 2020, a Europe-wide operation coordinated by Europol saw the arrest of 388 child trafficking offenders across Europe. Working with the United Kingdom, Spain, and Portugal, Europol made several arrests that revealed a lot of heart-wrenching situations concerning vulnerable kids. Other countries that were involved in the operation were Germany, Lithuania, Romania, Croatia, Cyprus, Belgium, Austria, Slovenia, and the Netherlands.

With Europol providing both operational and analytical support throughout the operation while also involving several other law enforcement agents, such as the police, transport police, immigration, and border control agencies, as well as social and child protection services, the joint operation proved to be a successful one. In fact, the operation involved more than 59 071 people, 36 860 documents, 1529 locations, and 15928 vehicles. Here are some of the highlights of the operation:

• Over 246 potential victims of child trafficking were identified, and 61 of them were children — the age of 107 others had not been determined at the time of the report.
• Nineteen of the suspects were identified, while investigations began on 40 new cases.
• Each of the countries involved in the joint operation focused on main transportation hubs and border crossings to identify victims and suspects of child trafficking. These countries particularly adopted plans that were relevant to their respective countries.

June 2019 Arrests

In June 2019, Europol, in collaboration with other partners, carried out a pan-European arrest of child traffickers. The Operation, led by the United Kingdom, also involved 15 EU Member States plus Iceland and Switzerland. These arrests took place between 17 and 23 June 2019, and experts from various law enforcement agencies also partook in the operation.

Europol made provision for effective communication between participating countries and also made recommendations to investigators. Over 127 000 individuals, 63 800 vehicles, and 1 100 locations were involved in the joint action. Here are a few highlights of the arrests:

• About 34 human traffickers, as well as the arrest of 36 people for offenses such as dissemination of child sexual exploitation materials and facilitation of illegal migration, were arrested.
• Some 206 potential victims of human trafficking were identified. Of these people, 53 were minors.
• The operation helped to kick-start 31 new cases of human trafficking across the different countries that took part in the operation.
• Law enforcement agents made searches in bus and train stations, ferry ports, airports, and border crossings, hotels, as well as commercial and private establishments. Campaigns were also made in schools about the evils of child trafficking.

July 2018 Arrests

In the first week of July 2018, Europol arrested some offenders in a crackdown against child trafficking. Of the 123 potential victims of trafficking rescued during this operation, 51 were children. One was these children was just two years old. Europol said it arrested 24 people in the operation, while 61 were detained for other related offenses.

From the different arrests made, some trends were observed. These are some of the general characteristics of child trafficking networks:

• Child trafficking networks are usually composed of members sharing the same nationality or ethnic ties, and they often target victims of the same nationality.
• The majority of traffickers within the EU have a criminal history in their country of origin or EU Member States.
• Female child trafficking suspects always play a vital part in the trafficking and exploitation of children.
• In cases where the victims are young girls, the younger traffickers are mainly males posing as ‘lovers’.
• Child trafficking offenders usually send their earnings to their country of origin: they send these illicit funds in bits through money transfer services, or in large sums when using criminal money couriers.
• Traffickers usually involve their victim’s families in the recruitment process; other times, they target children in orphanages and foster homes.
• The use of counterfeit documents and fake identities is very common in the trafficking of children.

Conclusion

Although a few arrests have been made in the fight against child trafficking, more action is still needed. Firstly, after these arrests, the perpetrators of these crimes should be made to face the law immediately, and they should receive severe punishments for their crimes against children.

Secondly, the frequency and number of operations that lead to arrests of these criminals must be increased. Organizing such operations every month would be an important first step. It is only by being proactive, and effectively addressing the challenges hindering the fight against child trafficking, that we can all have a free and safe future — where our children are free from bondage and exploitation. Children are the future, so we need to do more to protect them!

Featured photo by Misha Voguel, Pexels