AMSTERDAM, Netherlands, Feb. 6 (UPI) -- The number of victims of human trafficking found in the Netherlands increased to 809 in 2008 from 716 in 2007, records indicate.
The newspaper Trouw, using figures obtained from the National Center Against Human Trafficking, said there were especially large increases in the number of victims from Hungary and China, Radio Netherlands/Expatica reported. Most of the victims, 763, were women, the great majority of them forced to work as prostitutes.
The number of Hungarians found in the Netherlands increased to 43 from 12 in 2007, all of them women forced into sex work. Investigators said trafficking networks bringing women to the Netherlands appear to have shifted to Eastern Europe.
The rise in Chinese victims may have been a temporary phenomenon, investigators said, sparked by rumors that the Netherlands was granting Chinese a general amnesty tied to the Beijing Olympics.
