RABAT - The Moroccan police said on Wednesday that three Iranians and four Bulgarians had been arrested for alleged links to an international human-trafficking ring, official news agency MAP reported.
The three Iranians were arrested on Tuesday at the Casablanca Mohammed V Airport while attempting to board a plane to Spain using false travel documents, the police said in a statement.
The four Bulgarians were later arrested for their alleged involvement in planning and facilitating the illegal immigration attempt, the police added.
Several forged travel documents, boarding passes and cellphones with international SIM cards were seized by police, according to the statement.
The suspects, aged between 28 and 68, were taken into custody for questioning by the Moroccan authorities responsible for fighting illegal immigration, the statement noted.
According to Cambridge University Press, human trafficking remains a serious problem in Africa.
The continent is a major region of origin for victims who are trafficked into other parts of the world such as Western Europe and the Middle East, the university says.
In 2021, the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) jointly with the National Agency for the Prohibition of Trafficking in Persons (NAPTIP) presented the key findings of UNODC Fifth Global Report on Trafficking in Persons, to stakeholders from the Government of Nigeria, civil society organisations and international partners.
The report showed that children represent more than 75% of trafficking victims detected in West Africa.
The report revealed that countries in West Africa tended to detect more victims than other countries in Sub-Saharan Africa, mainly children for the purpose of forced labour.
Out of 4799 victims detected in 26 Sub-Saharan Africa countries, 3336 were in West Africa including 2553 children.
UNODC data suggests that close to 80% of victims in West Africa were trafficked for forced labour, which remains the major form of exploitation in the region.
IOL