VIENNA: The number of known victims of human trafficking has decreased for the first time in 20 years due to reduced trafficking and policing opportunities as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. However, according to a UN report released on Tuesday, there has now been a new surge as a result of the Ukraine war.

The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) reported in its seventh global report on trafficking in persons that in 2020, the most recent year for which data are available in most countries, the number of victims of trafficking decreased by 11 percent. ,

In a summary of the report, UNODC noted that "in 2020, for the first time ever, the number of victims globally decreased," adding that the largest declines were seen in low- and middle-income countries, particularly the South and South in India. Central America, as well as sub-Saharan Africa, East Asia and the Pacific.

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Three factors affecting low- and middle-income countries during the pandemic may have contributed to this change in trends: “Lower institutional capacity to locate victims, less space for traffickers to operate as a result of COVID-19 preventive restrictions, opportunities, and some forms of trafficking are moving to more covert and less recognized locations," the report said.

Southeast Asia, parts of Central America and the Caribbean could see further declines in 2021, according to preliminary data from only 20 countries.

The biggest drop was in trafficking for sexual exploitation, which declined by 24%. Trafficking in this category, detected for the first time since UNODC began compiling the data, was at the same level as forced labor trafficking at about 39 percent as a percentage of the total, according to the report.

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UNODC noted that sexual exploitation may be reduced as a result of (pandemic-related) closures of public places and may also be pushed into less visible and vulnerable areas, making this form of trafficking more covert and challenging to detect goes.

The war in Ukraine is unlikely to be an exception to the rule that conflicts increase trafficking, it added. "The influx of refugees into Ukraine is increasing human trafficking threats to the displaced Ukrainian population.

The number of Ukrainian victims discovered in Western Europe in 2016 had quadrupled in 2014 as a result of the conflict in Ukraine, the report said, pointing to Russia's annexation of Crimea.

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Furthermore, it has been said that in light of Russia's invasion of Ukraine last year, it is feared that the number of victims of trafficking will be even higher.