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Human trafficking: 500 alleged victims and 195 suspects arrested according to Interpol

2021-04-09T16:08:18.411Z


A vast crackdown in human trafficking networks has in recent weeks allowed the rescue of some 500 alleged victims and the arrest of 195 suspects in Africa and Europe, Interpol announced on Friday. Read also: Bulgaria at the heart of human trafficking Carried out between March 28 and April 2, Operation " Weka " (" Stop! " In Swahili) involved 24 countries from both continents, where the conduct o


A vast crackdown in human trafficking networks has in recent weeks allowed the rescue of some 500 alleged victims and the arrest of 195 suspects in Africa and Europe, Interpol announced on Friday.

Read also: Bulgaria at the heart of human trafficking

Carried out between March 28 and April 2, Operation "

Weka

" ("

Stop!

" In Swahili) involved 24 countries from both continents, where the conduct of investigations and the exchange of intelligence allowed the dismantling of criminal networks. , specifies in a press release the international police cooperation organization headquartered in Lyon.

These countries include South Africa, Kenya, Sudan, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Morocco, Tunisia, Spain and Greece.

Of the 195 arrests carried out during this crackdown, coordinated by the specialized unit of Interpol "

Vulnerable Groups

", 88 people were arrested for "

trafficking in human beings

" and 63 others for "

smuggling

".

The other suspects arrested were for "

falsification

" of documents, "

theft

", "

crimes and offenses

" in terms of narcotics and damage to the environment, according to the same source.

Among the most striking police raids, that of the Sudanese security forces which released a hundred victims from the clutches of more than twenty traffickers, some of whom were trying to lead their victims to the Middle East, and others exploited children in plastic factories.

This operation also led to the discovery of a 10-year-old girl, doomed to forced labor in a house in Kenya, and the arrest of three suspects in Uganda who were organizing the trafficking of vulnerable young girls between the two countries.

Finally in South Africa, five Chinese were arrested in a blanket factory, freeing 17 Malawian nationals.

They were reportedly forced to work 15 hours a day without food or breaks, confined to the warehouse where they slept on the floor.

They said they were victims of physical violence there.

These victims could not simply extricate themselves from the terrible situation they were in and the suffering they were enduring.

This is the reason why Interpol's work will not stop there,

”said Interpol Secretary General Jürgen Stock, certain that more arrests will occur“

in the months to come

”.

Source: lefigaro

All news articles on 2021-04-09

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