Baghdad: worst province in Iraq for human trafficking

On Monday, the Iraqi High Tribunal Council announced that Baghdad is ahead of all other Iraqi provinces in terms of the number of human trafficking crimes recoreded. Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi has subsequently met with his security forces leaders to discuss the matter.

In a statement, the High Tribunal Council said that “the number of human trafficking crimes in Baghdad represents 50% of the total number of the same crime that is registered in the rest of the provinces.” It pointed out that “judges attributed the reason for the increase of this phenomenon to human trafficking gangs that exploit girls and children.”

The High Tribunal Council’s statistics explained that “In 2016, the Iraqi courts registered around 200 human trafficking crimes in many provinces.” It indicated that “there have been 91 male victims, most of them were children.”

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The statics also revealed that “Al-Qadisiyah Province is in the second rank after Baghdad. While the list of victims of human trafficking crimes in Babil Province included no males, for only female were victims of these crimes last year”. The provinces of Najaf, Kirkuk, Diyala, Basra and Muthanna have not registered any human trafficking lawsuits, though.

Meanwhile, Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi, along with Baghdad Operational Command, discussed the capital’s security plans.” An officer in Baghdad Operational Command told Al Arabi Al Jadid that “The meeting that al-Abadi held today with Baghdad Operational Command discussed the capital’s security plans and the need to achieve concrete results on the ground.”

He explained that “al-Abadi warned the leaders of the highly serious aspects of the security issue and the need to strictly deal with all those who underestimate this matter including officers and security officials.” He noted that “he pointed out to the need to facilitate cooperation and coordination with citizens to detect organized crimes, and to follow them up in order to reach the parties that organize these crimes.

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Legal experts hold the Iraqi judiciary and the security authorities to be responsible for the increase in the rates of this crime because of the ineffectiveness of the procedures implemented. In addition, the lack of the judiciary’s impartiality in some cases and the lack of deterrent penalties against some gangs aggravate the security crisis.