The Russian Foreign Ministry pointed to the threat of trafficking

Grigory Lukyantsev, Director of the Department of Multilateral Cooperation on Human Rights of the Russian Foreign Ministry, raised the topic of trafficking (human trafficking). Criminals use online platforms and social networks to recruit their victims, so it is necessary to take care of children and loved ones and pay attention to who they communicate with on the Internet, he said.

In his Telegram channel, Lukyantsev drew attention to the fact that on July 30 the World Day against Human Trafficking is celebrated, proclaimed by the UN General Assembly, noting that in the modern world thousands of people - women, men and children — become victims of trafficking every year, in fact, fall into slavery.

"They are subjected to sexual exploitation, they are used as free and disenfranchised labor, and, no matter how scary it may sound, they are sold for organs. Human traffickers, who most often operate as part of large transnational groups, earn billions of dollars from the horrors experienced by their victims," he writes.

Today, one of the actively developing forms of trafficking is forcing people to engage in criminal activities, including participation in large-scale fraudulent schemes, the head of the Department of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation emphasized. For example, victims are tricked or coerced into special centers where they are kept in captivity and forced to engage in extortion, blackmail, cyber attacks and the spread of fakes. Large cross-border criminal networks are behind the organization of such centers and the exploitation of people.

"Criminals often and, unfortunately, effectively use various online platforms and social networks to recruit victims, primarily children and adolescents. Take care of your children and loved ones and pay attention to who they communicate with online," he urged.

Lukyantsev also said that "most of the victims of trafficking are people from the most vulnerable groups of the population — living below the poverty line, unemployed, socially unprotected."

"However, there are exceptions. It is important to deal with the root causes of people getting into a difficult situation that leads them into the hands of criminals," he added.

As the head of the department noted, there is no country that does not face this terrible kind of crime.

"Therefore, it is especially important that States be open to cooperation in the fight against human trafficking. Only together, based on the principles of an open and fair dialogue, can we move forward on the path of countering this evil. Russia regularly calls for constructive cooperation on international platforms," he concluded.