By Juliette VILLEROY, doctoral student at the Conservatoire National des Arts et Métiers (CNAM) – Security & Defence unit

"Human trafficking for the purpose of sexual exploitation is the oldest and most notorious form of human trafficking in the world. According to the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, "53% of victims of human trafficking are victims of sexual exploitation"1. This pattern applies in France: in a report on the victims monitored by 44 associations in 2022, the Interministerial Mission for the Protection of Women against Violence and the Fight against Trafficking in Human Beings (MIPROF) and the Ministerial Statistical Service for Internal Security (SSMSI) indicate that 76% of victims of human trafficking are victims of sexual exploitation2. Elvire Arrighi, Head of the Central Office for the Repression of Trafficking in Human Beings (OCRTEH), underlines that sexual exploitation is a phenomenon in which the territorial aspect loses influence: "In recent years, we have witnessed the rise of networks operating from abroad, which exploit young women on French territory in a nomadic style, without ever having a local presence. Ten, twenty, thirty victims, who are regularly displaced, are simultaneously exploited by the same network, in various towns”." 

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