Europe — Migrant Vulnerability to Human Trafficking And Exploitation (November 2017)

This brief summarizes results from the report “Migrant Vulnerability to Human Trafficking and Exploitation: Evidence from the Central and Eastern Mediterranean Migration Routes”. The data on which the report analysis is based was collected through a network of field workers as part of IOM’s DTM flow monitoring operations in the Mediterranean, from December 2015 to November 2016. Key findings include: The presence of conflict in the country of departure can be a significant predictor of migrants’ vulnerability to human trafficking and exploitation during their journey to Europe; Migrants travelling along the Central Mediterranean route are more vulnerable to exploitation and human trafficking than migrants travelling on the Eastern Mediterranean route; Specific sociodemographic characteristics predict higher vulnerability to exploitation during the journey to Europe; and West African migrants are the most likely to be vulnerable to exploitative practices on the migration journey, while North Africans appear the least likely to be vulnerable to such practices on both routes.