Azernews.Az

BAKU – 34 human trafficking victims have been identified in Azerbaijan this year, a sharp drop in past years, officials said.

Javad Shikhaliyev, who heads the Interior Ministry’s department on fighting trafficking in humans, told reporters that there were 86 human trafficking victims in the country in 2006, 101 victims in 2007, 78 in 2008, and 91 in 2009.

Shikhaliyev noted that 34 people have been arraigned on related charges.

He went on to say that most of human trafficking cases are linked to sexual exploitation. Most of the women affected by such crimes are taken to Turkey, Iran, the United Arab Emirates and Pakistan, and a few are taken to Russia.

Shikhaliyev said the majority of identified human trafficking victims have integrated into society. A lion’s share of them have jobs and receive education, and many have been provided with legal counsel, psychological and social assistance.

According to Shikhaliyev, major instances of abuse at work have not been reported this year. Only one of the crimes exposed by the Interior Ministry department was related to forced labor, as three Azerbaijani citizens were drawn to such activity in Poland.