Operation Global Chain, a large-scale initiative across almost 40 countries, disrupted criminal networks responsible for the sexual exploitation and human trafficking of 1,374 identified victims, including 153 children.
Carried out in early June 2024, police across Latin America, Europe, Africa and Asia coordinated efforts across hundreds of high-risk cases.
In what authorities highlighted as a particularly gruesome case, Hungarian officers arrested a couple that forced “six of their own children into sex as well as begging on the streets in their village.”
Global operation targeting human trafficking (Europol)
Police noted how the parents prostituted their children to their neighbors in exchange for payment. The underage children were noted to have suffered various other forms of abuse as well, such as beatings, malnourishment, and being forcibly tied up at home.
The victims have since been rescued and placed into foster care.
Another investigation in Romania identified a human trafficker who recruited underage victims from disadvantaged backgrounds and forced them into begging and sexual exploitation. The suspect withheld all revenue for themself and used physical violence to dominate their victims, authorities said.
Officers reported that narcotics were discovered during the raid that led to the suspect’s arrest.
And in Vietnam, police dismantled a human trafficking scheme that targeted individuals seeking overseas employment, only to force them into carrying out online financial scams. Using a pyramid scheme-like structure, victims were punished if they failed to recruit others into the scheme.
Vietnamese authorities reported that the victims were forced into more than 12-hour workdays and had their personal documents confiscated. Ransoms to their families exceeding US$10,000 were sent to their families to secure their safe return to Vietnam, investigators said.
Interpol reported that hundreds of new human trafficking investigations have been opened as a result of intelligence gathered during the operation.