Vienna - Human trafficking is the fastest growing form of organised crime, a UN official said here yesterday.
The executive director of the UN Office for Drug Control and Crime, Mr Pino Arlacchi, told a meeting of the Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe's (OSCE) permanent council that "there are reports that drug traffickers are switching to human cargo to obtain greater profit with less risk".
"I am not referring to the smuggling of migrants, another form of organised crime, but to the modern form of human slavery where the victim loses the freedom to control his or her own life."
According to UNICEF, 200,000 children in west and central Africa become the victims of this modern slave trade every year.
Meanwhile, eight people from three African countries have been arrested at the airport in Luanda, Angola, and are set to be deported. Most were found in possession of forged passports, immigration officials said yesterday.
Six of the group were from the Republic of Congo, one from Gabon, and one from Zimbabwe, the officials said.
The deportations are part of Angola's crackdown on illegal immigration.