More cases of human trafficking identified

– The most frequently discovered forms of exploitation are forced labour and work under unreasonable conditions, says Lisa Hultin Knutas, National Coordinator of the Swedish Migration Agency’s efforts to combat human trafficking.

The Swedish Migration Agency is tasked with contributing to efforts to combat human trafficking and similar crimes. This mission encompasses all the agency’s processes, and the work includes identifying victims of suspected human trafficking and reporting suspected crimes to the Swedish Police Authority. Another crucial part of the work is the referral of potential victims to the regional coordinators of the Swedish Gender Equality Agency’s work to combat prostitution and human trafficking. The detection of human trafficking by the Swedish Migration Agency is crucial to Sweden’s work on the issue and helps to minimise the possibility of using various residence permits for criminal purposes.

In 2024, the Swedish Migration Agency identified a total of 684 cases of suspected human trafficking, compared to 576 suspected cases in 2023 and 515 cases in 2022.

– Our assessment is that the long-term increase is due to an increased ability within our organisation to identify suspicious cases. But for 2024, the high figure is also due to a group case we discovered involving a large number of potential victims, notes Lisa Hultin Knutas.

The most common nationalities of those involved in the cases are Argentinian, Turkish and Uzbek. Not counting the group case, the most prevalent nationalities are Uzbek, Nigerian and Ukrainian. This is in line with the data from the previous year. In total, 64 nations are represented, four of which are EU Member States.

Forced labour the most common form of exploitation

– Forced labour or work under manifestly unreasonable conditions is the most frequently discovered form of exploitation. A recurring problem is that businesses are used as tools of crime. The Swedish Migration Agency will now continue to develop our work to identify companies that don’t comply with the rules, says Lisa Hultin Knutas.

The fact that forced labour is the most common form of human trafficking is also reflected in national statistics from the Swedish Gender Equality Agency. This finding corresponds to the global trend identified by the UNODC in its report on human trafficking External link., published in late 2024. It shows that, for the first time, forced labour is the most common form of human trafficking, based on data from 2020–2023. In the past, sexual exploitation was at the top of the list.