UNODC calls for more efforts to stop human trafficking

[Behind the Aegis]

VIENNA, April 24 (Xinhua) -- The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) said on Monday that global efforts to fight human trafficking were inefficient and governments needed to try harder to tackle the issue.

No country in the world was unaffected by the trafficking of people for sexual exploitation or forced labor. Some countries did not even acknowledge that the problem affected them, the UN crime agency said in a report.

It identified 127 countries from which victims originate, mainly in Asia and Eastern Europe, as well as 98 transit countries and 137 destination areas and nations, which include the European Union, North America, the Gulf states and Japan.

"It is extremely difficult to establish how many victims there are in the world, but the number certainly runs into millions, it is difficult to name a country that is not affected in some way," said UNODC Executive Director Antonio Maria Costa.

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(The actual report is here: Trafficking in Persons - Global Patterns. The report is 128 pages and does contain some distubing photographs.)