The Government of Italy does not fully meet the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking but is making significant efforts to do so. The government demonstrated overall increasing efforts compared with the previous reporting period; therefore Italy remained on Tier 2. These efforts included identifying more trafficking victims, including Italian victims, increasing funding for victim assistance, and increasing funding for prevention activities and implementation of the NAP. The government also adopted a new NRM and separate national identification and referral protocols for undocumented migrants to ensure uniform proactive victim identification and referral to care. Prosecutors established a working group to develop a uniform investigative protocol for trafficking cases involving undocumented migrants. However, the government did not meet the minimum standards in several key areas. The government prosecuted fewer suspects and convicted fewer traffickers, and for the fourth consecutive year, the government conducted fewer trafficking investigations. Gaps in victim identification systems persisted and the government identified comparatively few Italians or children, despite high estimates by civil society of trafficking among children. The new NRM and identification protocols did not include Italians, which may have left Italian victims without access to trafficking-specific services. The government has never awarded compensation to victims, and restitution remained rare and difficult to obtain. Civil society and experts reported rare cases in which authorities inappropriately penalized victims solely for unlawful acts, including immigration offenses, committed as a direct result of being trafficked.
As reported over the past five years, human traffickers exploit foreign and domestic victims in Italy. Sex traffickers increasingly use online platforms, such as social networks, mobile applications, and the dark web, to recruit and exploit victims and book apartment rentals to make their illicit operations difficult to track. Refugees, predominantly women and children, fleeing Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine are vulnerable to trafficking. LGBTQI+ individuals, many from Brazil and other Latin American countries, are vulnerable to sex trafficking and forced criminality in Italy. Traffickers, often part of criminal networks run by People’s Republic of China (PRC) nationals, systematically exploit women from the PRC in sex trafficking in apartments, beauty centers, clubs, and massage parlors as well as labor trafficking in a variety of PRC national-owned businesses, sometimes forcing drug addiction on victims as a means of coercion. Massage parlors are frequently used as fronts for the purchase of commercial sex, raising concerns about sex trafficking. Of an estimated 40,000 to 45,000 individuals involved in commercial sex on the streets, NGOs reported approximately 60 percent (or 24,000 to 27,000) are trafficking victims or at risk of trafficking and between 5 and 8 percent are children (or approximately 2,000 to 3,600). Trafficking networks and gangs continue to grow more sophisticated, organized, and violent, particularly Nigerian gangs linked to the Black Axe, Supreme Viking Confraternity, and the Eiye syndicate. Traffickers continue to subject Nigerian women and girls to sex trafficking through debt-based coercion and voodoo rituals. Authorities report traffickers encourage Nigerian victims to claim asylum to obtain legal residency and facilitate further exploitation. NGOs report most Ivorian women who migrate to Italy do so with the help of organized criminal gangs, increasing their vulnerability to trafficking; some are subjected to domestic servitude and sex trafficking en route to Italy. Traffickers sometimes exploit migrant women in sex trafficking in and around migration centers.
Some Italian citizens engage in extraterritorial commercial child sexual exploitation and abuse abroad. Traffickers exploit children in Italy through sex trafficking, forced criminality, forced begging, and forced labor in the agricultural sector, shops, bars, restaurants, and bakeries. Romani children are vulnerable to trafficking, including forced begging and child sex trafficking. “Lover boy” gangs recruit girls in Eastern Europe, especially Romania, via social media and exploit them in child sex trafficking in Italy. Traffickers frequently target unaccompanied children, who are especially vulnerable to trafficking. The government reported the number of unaccompanied seaborne children increased to 17,319 in 2023; a significant increase compared with 13,386 in 2022, 10,053 in 2021, and 4,631 in 2020. The government reported there were 20,926 unaccompanied children in Italy in 2022.
Labor traffickers operate in agriculture, predominantly in southern Italy, construction, household labor, hospitality, and restaurants. Undocumented migrants and asylum-seekers living in the approximately 30 informal settlements across Italy are vulnerable to trafficking. Traffickers use debt bondage to exploit victims, predominantly men from Bangladesh, and force them to sell roses throughout the country. There are strong indicators of forced labor in Cuba’s labor export program, including the medical missions. In 2023, there were approximately 172 Cuban government-affiliated medical workers in Calabria who may have been forced to work by the Cuban government. Italy has an estimated 1.5 million unregistered workers and 3.7 million undocumented workers in the informal market who are at risk for labor trafficking. Specifically for the agricultural sector, experts estimated that as many as 200,000 workers in 2021, particularly seasonal workers, are at risk for forced labor and exploitation in Italy. Employers in the agricultural sector sometimes submit falsified forms pertaining to their workers, which impedes labor inspections and the potential identification of trafficking victims. Italy had approximately 500,000 undocumented migrants in 2022, many of whom are at risk for trafficking. Italy received approximately 157,651 undocumented migrant arrivals by sea in 2023 – a significant increase compared with previous years; many set sail from Libya, where some migrants are subjected to extortion, torture, human trafficking, and rape by militias or traffickers while awaiting passage to Italy. Traffickers target migrant centers to recruit and later exploit asylum-seekers, sometimes claiming to be family members to gain access to the centers. Asylum-seekers may legally work beginning two months after filing their applications, although many seek illegal employment immediately in informal sectors, increasing their risk for trafficking.
from 2024 Trafficking in Persons Report – U.S. Department of State
2024 Trafficking in Persons Report – United States Department of State
