According to the Iraqi Observatory for Victims of Human Trafficking, two thirds of the victims are children and women, and government officials are involved

The first report of the Iraqi Observatory for Victims of Human Trafficking revealed that 13 human trafficking crimes were documented in Iraq in November, pointing out that children under the age of 16 and women represent two-thirds of the victims, who are physically exploited or forced by their parents, or by the threats of traders and brokers.

The Observatory confirmed in its report the involvement of "brokers, traders and figures from the government, in catching victims for trafficking, taking advantage of their influence in the security institutions, which facilitate the evasion of legal accountability and impunity."

The Observatory said that 40% of the trafficking crimes in the country are located in the capital Baghdad and are operated by three groups, which have been documented by the Observatory so far. They are working on luring victims through fake pages on the social networks run by brokers who catch their victims in ways that involve fraud to take their organs for sums ranging from seven to ten million Iraqi dinars (US $ 840).

The three groups stole the human organs from hospitals in Baghdad, Sulaymaniyah and the Syrian capital Damascus, in collusion with doctors in these hospitals. Other groups run similar operations in Erbil and Sulaymaniyah, northern Iraq.

The Observatory called on the concerned and competent authorities to exert greater efforts to reduce these crimes, address their causes and provide safe shelters for the victims, as well as, to activate the role of the Supreme Central Committee for Combating Human Trafficking and the subcommittees in the governorates. Besides, it called on the Iraqi security and judicial authorities to activate and implement the Anti-Human Trafficking Law No. 28 of 2012, and the imposition of the most severe sanctions against all those involved in these crimes, pointing at the same time that the law is not enough, because of the non-commitment of the Ministry of Interior to support the law, and the non-provision of the appropriate ground to economically combat the causes of crime, as it has just adhered to light tariffs and penalties.

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