Today is the EU's annual day against trafficking, and with that we are given a dark insight into the reality of the many women and children who are exposed to human trafficking and sexual exploitation.
Not even one percent of those exposed to human trafficking are identified, notes Jacob Flärdh, general secretary of Child 10, who was invited by TV4 to speak on the subject. In the conversation, he highlights an often overlooked, but all the more common, type of human trafficking – the commercial sexual exploitation of children. In most schools and in all countries there are children and young people who have been persuaded to perform sexual acts for payment.
Why then do we so often miss these common abuses? According to Jacob Flärdh, there are few children who dare to tell and who feel ashamed. There is a "tendency to focus on what the child has done, the child's actions, in the situation, which is completely irrelevant - because the child has no responsibility for being exploited, but the responsibility lies entirely with the perpetrator", he states. We adults are also far too bad at asking.