In total, 3,489 people were victims of human trafficking in France in 2020, including a large majority of women, according to a report by the Interministerial Mission for the Protection of Women against Violence and the Fight against Human Trafficking (Miprof) and the Ministerial Statistical Service for Internal Security, published Wednesday, December 15.
Among them, 68% are victims of sexual exploitation, or 2,369 people, 18% are victims of labor exploitation, or 642 people, 11% are forced to commit crimes, or 400 people, and the rest are forced especially begging, ie 57 people.
Of these 3,489 victims, only 2,259, or 65%, received support from the thirty or so associations that participated in the data collection for this report. The following figures are therefore based on this 65%. The victims of sexual exploitation are more represented among the victims accompanied (77%), because they are more numerous in quantity but they are also more likely to ask for help: 73% are accompanied, against 53% of the victims of labor exploitation, 49% of those forced into begging and 33% of those forced to commit crimes.
79% of the victims of human trafficking who are accompanied are women, 12% are men and 9% are trans people, says the report, which does not specify the gender, female or male, of these transgender people. 93% of victims are adults and only 7% are minors. Among the minors, 51% are girls and 49% are boys.
The type of exploitation, to which these people are victims, is largely linked to their gender. For example, 87% of victims of sexual exploitation are women, 12% are trans people – again unspecified female or male gender – and only 1% are men. Two thirds of those forced to work are women, but this rises to 95% when it comes to domestic work and goes down to 33% when it comes to other jobs (building, trade), mainly imposed on women. men (77% of victims). On the other hand, 84% of people who are forced to commit crimes are men or boys.
The distribution is also made according to age: while only 4% of victims of sexual exploitation and only 1% of victims of labor exploitation are minors, 56% of people who are forced to commit crimes are minors. children, and this rises to 71% of people forced into begging. Almost half of the people forced into begging accompanied by associations are under 15 years old.
The victims come from 73 countries on almost all continents, but those originating from sub-Saharan Africa and the North are in the majority in all types of trafficking, except coercion to begging where the victims are very mainly from Eastern Europe. ‘East and South. Victims from Romania also represent 32% of people forced to commit crimes.
There are also geographic specificities to trafficking in human beings. For example, 72% of victims of sexual exploitation are from Nigeria, or around 760 people. Moreover, 99% of trafficking victims from Nigeria are sexually exploited. The vast majority of victims from Western Europe and Latin America suffer the same fate. On the contrary, 75% of victims from Asia and 78% of those from East Africa are forced into forced labor. But among the victims from Eastern Europe, 44% are forced to commit crimes and 26% to begging.
In total, 47 of the victims accompanied lodged a complaint with the police and / or a public prosecutor’s office for acts of trafficking in human beings or for another reason. 14% of the victims supported have French or European nationality. Among the others, 47% have a residence permit, 19% are awaiting a response from the administration to receive papers, 26% are in an irregular situation and the others have been refused their residence permit.