Attachments
Executive summary
Children across Europe are trafficked for a variety of criminal and exploitation purposes. They are trafficked within their countries and within and across the EU. Trafficking hinders the development of children and damages them permanently.
Trafficked children are excluded from education, health and a safe and protective environment.
This study is a deliverable of the EU Strategy towards the Eradication of Trafficking in Human Beings 2012-2016, which recognised that vulnerable groups, such as children, are at greater risk of human trafficking.
The Study on high-risk groups for trafficking in human beings looked at risk and resilience factors that influence the likelihood of children becoming victims of THB, with a view to establishing risk profiles and developing recommendations for improvements in policies in the EU and Member States (MS). The Study was prepared by collecting information in all Member States from key informants and through desk research. The uniqueness of this study lies in its focus on the concrete experience of children and practitioners in EU Member States. The Study places the experience of children in the centre of the analysis and based on this further elaborates on typologies of child trafficking as well as risk and resilience factors. The Study does not address in detail the issue of demand, but focuses on factors that render children vulnerable. That is to say that vulnerabilities per se do not cause or result in trafficking in human beings. Trafficking in human beings is a demand-driven and profit-driven crime, as well as a grave human rights violation. Trafficking in human beings is about demand for services of victims and goods produced through their exploitation, and it is about profits. Risk factors render people, and in particular children, vulnerable to victimisation.