According to a Swedish report, more men than women were victims of human trafficking in the country in 2017, the Swedish Television SVT reported on Tuesday.
The report compiled by the Swedish Police showed that the amount of reported human trafficking cases increases in Sweden. The report also showed that in 2017, for the first time, more men than women were victims of reported human trafficking cases.
The police believe that more male victims have been identified because the police have focused their investigation on begging and its connection with human trafficking.
"Women and girls fall victims to human trafficking for sexual purpose as often as before. But in 2017 in total, more men than women were victims of human trafficking", said police inspector Kajsa Wahlberg to SVT.
In most cases, people from Eastern Europe are brought into Sweden and forced to beg, do physical work or work in prostitution. The greatest increase can be seen in pimping where reported cases increased from 102 (in 2016) to 132 (in 2017).
In addition, in 2017 there were 82 cases of human trafficking for sexual purposes and 132 cases for other purposes. Corresponding figures from 2016 were 81 cases for sexual purposes and 116 for other purposes.
