Canada puts Moldova on black list of traffickers in humans

Moldova, Romania, China and the Philippines are the top four worst offenders in international human trafficking to Canada, according to the first national statistics on the extent of the crime in Canada, Info-Prim Neo reports. The figure of 31 foreign nationals - four of them minor children - who came to the attention of Canadian immigration officials between May 2006 and May 2008 represents just a small fraction of the total victims. "This is the tip of the trafficking iceberg," said University of B.C. law Prof. Benjamin Perrin, a leading expert on human trafficking, told the canada.com news portal. China contributed the most victims to Canada with a total of 11 confirmed trafficking cases, while four came from Romania, three from the Philippines and three from Moldova, an Eastern Bloc country known for organized crime. In accordance with U.S. research into trafficking, most of the 31 cases recognized in Canada, although not formally identified by gender, are women and children trafficked into the sex trade or forced labor. The U.S. Government considers that the situation of the trafficking in human beings has improved and it places Moldova in a better position in his relevant report. Some 7,500 Moldovans become victims of trafficking in human beings annually, that is 1% of some 750,000 working abroad, the U.S. Department of State estimates. Trafficking countering NGOs annually identify some 500 victims. The rest of them remain unidentified.