Greek experts voice concerns over alarming human trafficking in refugee crisis

Greek experts, during a festival hosted this weekend in Athens to mark the European Day Against Human Trafficking, have voiced their strong concerns over growing human trafficking in the massive influx of refugees and migrants from the Middle East into Europe.

The festival, called "Break the Chain", was aimed to raise the awareness of the public regarding issues of trafficking and exploitation of people with the majority of NGOs reporting a need for a national action plan with better monitoring and evaluation system.

"Human trafficking is a problem that cannot be identified in its real dimensions," Herakles Moskoff, Greek National Rapporteur for Combating Human Trafficking, told Xinhua on Monday.

According to the latest figures, Greek police investigated only 13 human trafficking cases in the first five months of 2015, 36 in 2014, and 37 cases in 2013.

In 2014, the government prosecuted 125 defendants on suspicion of committing trafficking-related crimes, a decrease from 142 in 2013 and 177 in 2012.

"As you can imagine these numbers don't depict the reality of victims who are trapped around us," Maria Moudatsou, a forensic psychologist at NGO Praksis added.

"Several victims don't get identified. That's why we need to cover major gaps in key players and in refugees reception centers," Moudatsou advised.

Though the Greek government has made sustained efforts to prevent trafficking, severe budgetary constraints caused by Greece's six-year economic crisis and fiscal measures imposed as part of Greece's international bailout have led to many setbacks.

In order to combat the modern slavery of forced labour and sex trafficking Moskoff stressed that there is a need to better educate the professionals involved like police officers, doctors, judges, and to add more groups in this training chain so that they can identify the victims if they come in contact with them.

"The problem is that human trafficking has changed, it is not so brutal as it used to be. Traffickers offer goods to their victims as an exchange and they become perpetrators in order to survive. Having lost its human dignity, the victim believes that there is no way out," Moskoff highlighted.

"As trafficking is one of the most heinous forms of organized crime and violation of human rights, it is the responsibility of all of us to be aware and to set the problem in the right context," he pointed out referring also to the refugee caravans.

"We see the refugees only as a threat, as a health bomb or a security challenge. But, we do not understand that there is a darker side of the "market" that waits to take advantage of these vulnerable groups," he added.

Dimitris Bouras, a freelance researcher and reporter on humanitarian issues, divides his time in refugee camps in Syria, Afghanistan and Iraq among other troubled territories around the globe. From his experience, he said that in those areas cases of human trafficking are real intense.

"We must stem the problem from its source. It's like cancer, you can prevent it if you find it in first stages. If you try to deal with it when it is in a metastatic level, it's too late," said Bouras who has been in the front line of the battle since 1990.

In war zones or areas hit by crisis, human trafficking flourishes. Today Syria and Ukraine are the main sources for illegal trafficking of children.

For Bouras, necessary structures must be developed near troubled zones to prevent the moving of people from one place to another so that they do not become easy prey for smugglers.

Since human trafficking is a globally lucrative business with a turnover of approximately 24 billion euros every year, it will not be eliminated as long as there is a demand.

Moudatsou stressed that officials urge law enforcement to follow the money in order to crack down on human trafficking crimes. "Otherwise we will always be a step behind," she said. Endit