9 December 2003
BRUSSELS – Human trafficking has become the boom business of organised crime in Belgium, according the Centre for Equal Opportunities and Opposition to Racism’s annual report.
Human traffickers are increasingly organising themselves like large companies, setting up partnerships and infiltrating into the legal economy, according to the report.
Companies such as travel agencies, transport companies and modelling agencies are often a cover for human trafficking businesses, with organisers behind such companies making a fortune.
The Centre for Equal Opportunities and Opposition to Racism says traffickers will only stop if their criminal practices stop being profitable.
It is important therefore to block the flow of money which is supporting human trafficking, but public prosecutors often do not have sufficient means and staff to make financial analyses of human traffic cases, it said.
Subject: Belgian news