Europe: Focus shifts to trafficking of males

Governments and third sector organisations must raise awareness of a growing problem with male human trafficking in some of Eastern Europe's poorest countries if its victims are to get the help they need, people trafficking monitors say. More and more men are falling victim to people traffickers - not, like most trafficked women, ending up in prostitution - but instead forced to work as virtual slaves by gang masters. Hundreds of thousands of men are believed to have fallen victim, and in Eastern Europe the poorest states such as Belarus and Ukraine are experiencing some of the worst of what migration watchdogs say is a "growing problem" worldwide. But they say while it is becoming more visible, public perception of human trafficking needs to be changed.