How many people are trafficked in Denmark, - and who are they?

The number of trafficked persons in Denmark

It is almost impossible to put precise figures on the scale of the problem, as human trafficking is most often hidden. The number of detected trafficked people in Denmark between 2016- 2022 is 610 persons, including children.

HopeNow perform outreach work contributing to the identification of trafficked people in Denmark. We submit the data of our outreach to the Danish Center Against Trafficking. If presumed victims of human trafficking are detected, then it’s ultimately only the police, courts and the Danish Immigration Department, which can officially declare a victim as trafficked.

HopeNow asserts that there are many more hidden trafficked people in Denmark than ever detected and officially identified.

Center Against Human Trafficking publishes the official numbers of detected victims on its website. The victims of trafficking in Denmark are usually third-country nationals who might be staying irregularly in Denmark as a direct consequence of being trafficked.

Click here for the statistics provided by the Danish government https://cmm.dk/statistik

The Profile of trafficked persons in Denmark

Most of the victims staying at the shelters for trafficked persons have been from Nigeria. Still, there have also been women from Uganda, Kenya, Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, the Russian Federation and Thailand.

The Danish police estimate that around 2.500 foreign women work in the Danish sex industry, and the number of women trafficked to Demark has been growing since 2002.

The men are often trafficked into forced labour, and this exploitation is the most common. Physically demanding work is at the top – among other forms in the transport industry. Most of the victims come from the Philippines; this is the first time that another nationality outnumbers Nigerian victims.

African men are most often trafficked to sell drugs or other forms of organised crime. More victims from Morocco have been identified – often, young boys under the age of 18 are exploited and used for different criminal activities. The increased number of identified trafficked men is probably also because the authorities – including the Tax Department, the Labor Inspectorate and unions – are becoming wiser about forced labour.

The majority of African women have been trafficked at one time or another. Also, HopeNow has identified an increasing number of trafficked men in recent years, primarily African men selling drugs. The observations made by HopeNow also indicate a growing number of foreign women in prostitution in Denmark.

HopeNow’s target group is documented and undocumented men and women, mainly from different African countries. People of all genders are trafficked, and as mentioned before, not just for prostitution. In Denmark, trafficked persons typically come from Africa, Central and Eastern Europe, Asia and Latin America.

According to the Center against Human Trafficking, the largest single group are women from Nigeria who have been trafficked into prostitution. Nigerians constitute one of the largest trafficking victims in Europe and the rest of Africa.

In particular, we see many foreign women in brothels, escort services, and Copenhagen streets. HopeNow has also met women locked up inside apartments or in isolated houses in the countryside.

The most prominent case of human trafficking in Denmark was the “Hornet Nest” case, which concerned 300 persons recruited in Romania who were transported to Denmark, placed in isolated houses in the countryside and registered in the Danish personal identification system. Subsequently, the perpetrators claimed unemployment and maternity benefits on behalf of the victims, took out loans from credit companies, and committed tax and VAT fraud, as well as other crimes.