Police Directorate’s status report for 2012 from the Coordination Unit for Victims of Human Trafficking (KOM) reveals the worrying trend of human trafficking to Norway. In total 349 people were helped by the police last year. This is the maximum number of possible victims since the survey began in 2007.
136 of these 349 were identified as new potential victims in 2012, the rest have been identified previously. The 349 potential victims are from 50 nationalities. 255 of them are women, 24 are men and 70 are children. Two origins stand out. 163 of the people are coming from Nigeria and 46 from Romania with a sharp increase from 2011.
Prostitution and other sexual purposes are the most widely used form of exploitation of these people (239). Forced labor is the second largest (69). There are victims of forced labor in the restaurant industry, domestic work, begging, crime for profit and exploitation in the au pair scheme. From 2003 to June 2013, a total of 28 convictions were registered for trafficking in Norway.
The financial crisis in most of European countries makes Norway a more appealing target for traffickers.
