Iraq rights monitor says over 5,000 detained in 2025 trafficking probes, 385 victims identified

BAGHDAD, Iraq — The Iraqi Human Rights Observatory said more than 5,107 people were detained during human trafficking investigations in 2025, while the number of officially identified victims stood at 385. The group noted that the ratio of registered victims to those detained did not exceed 7.5 percent, describing the gap as evidence of a broader justice shortfall. According to preliminary findings from the observatory's study titled "The Engineering of Exploitation and the Justice Gap," the crime is carried out by organized networks and is linked to weak state structures, armed conflict, internal displacement, unemployment and poverty in the post-2003 period. Data from the report shows that 127 networks were dismantled over sexual exploitation, leading to 1,385 detentions, while 16 networks were broken up in organized begging cases, resulting in 2,107 arrests and only 25 registered victims. The observatory said the wide disparity between those detained and victims identified has led law enforcement and investigative units to convert victims into perpetrators, a practice it said contradicts the spirit of the Palermo Protocol and Iraq's Law No. 28 of 2012. It called for the establishment of specialized shelters for child victims, the expansion of protection and rehabilitation programs, and tighter oversight of recruitment agencies.