Chisinau – 16 June Yesterday, the annual Trafficking in Persons (TIP) Report was released by the U.S. Department of State. In the report, the State Department highlighted steps taken by the Moldovan government over the last year that demonstrated growing efforts in combating trafficking in persons. The 2023 TIP Report also presents specific recommendations to further advance Moldova’s anti-trafficking measures in the coming year and indicates the government’s overall actions efforts compared to the previous reporting period, considering the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. 
 
These efforts included, among others, the investigation of more trafficking cases, the prosecution of an increasing number of suspected traffickers, the adoption and implementation of a newly approved Program on National Referral Mechanism for Protection and Assistance for Victims of Crime (NRMV) (2022-2026). 

However, there are areas that do not meet the minimum standards and need further improvement, among others, proactively identify victims of trafficking (VoTs) among vulnerable groups, including state institutions, strengthen a victim-centered approach in investigations and prosecutions, expand the trainings for local authorities at the regional level, etc. Therefore, Moldova remained on Tier 2.
 
In 2022, IOM Moldova identified and assisted 58 victims of trafficking and their 28 children. In addition, 8 victims identified in 2021 continued to receive support through IOM projects.

The 75,8% (44) of victims of trafficking identified by IOM were exploited internally, in the Republic of Moldova, while 24,2% (14) were exploited abroad in the Russian Federation, Germany, Greece, UAE, Romania, Turkey, and Burundi.

Out of the 58 victims of trafficking identified, 77,6% were women and girls (45 cases: 31 women and 14 girls), while 22,4 % are men (13 cases: 11 men and 2 boys). 27,6% of the total victims were minors (14 girls, and 2 boys).

Most of these cases (33, 56,9%) were exploited in forced labor, followed by 23 cases (39,6%) in sexual exploitation and 2 cases in mixed exploitation (both sexual and labour at the same time).

The majority of traffickers (34 cases, 29 adults, and 5 minors) recruited people through personal contact. In 20 cases (12 adults and 8 minors) the trafficker was previously unknown to the victim, while in 4 cases (1 adult and 3 minors) the identified victims of trafficking were recruited by relatives.

As in 2021, in 2022 the majority of recruiters (77,6 %) are males or couples.

See the full report here:
https://www.state.gov/reports/2023-trafficking-in-persons-report/moldova

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For more information, please contact: 
Riccardo Severi, Project Officer - Media and Communications, IOM Moldova 
rseveri@iom.int