166 crimes related to human trafficking revealed in Azerbaijan last year

Baku. 12 June. REPORT.AZ/ In 2016, Azerbaijan revealed 166 crimes related to human trafficking. Report informs,

Head of the Main Department for Combating Human Trafficking under the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Azerbaijan Heydar Heydarov said at the conference "Strengthening of National Opportunities for Fighting Human Trafficking in Azerbaijan".

According to him, over 12 years, 486 people were prosecuted for human trafficking, 1,078 criminal cases were investigated, 761 trafficking victims were identified and reintegrated into society.

H. Heydarov stressed that Azerbaijan has always been serious about the issue of combating trafficking and systematically fought against such crimes.

"Cooperation with international organizations in this direction is always under close scrutiny," the head of the department noted.

At the same time, he noted that in Azerbaijan the number of crimes related to human trafficking is small and accounts for less than a percent of the total number of crimes. For example, in 2015, only 128 out of 26,916 total crimes were related to trafficking in human beings.