This choice is based on a comprehensive and modernist approach focused on prevention, protection, care or sponsorship and partnership, said Ben Abdelkader who was speaking on the occasion of the celebration of the World Day Against Trafficking in Persons, organized at the Higher Institute of Magistracy in Rabat by the national Commission for the coordination of measures to combat and prevent trafficking in persons.

The magnitude of the phenomenon, its expansion and spread at the international level oblige all sectors and organizations to set quality and precise standards and to seek good practices in leading countries to combat it, he stressed.

This crime, the minister added, requires a series of measures based, inter alia, on the establishment of a national referral mechanism for victims of human trafficking similar to that of leading countries in the fight against this crime, appropriate diagnosis and assessment that reflects the scale of the phenomenon, the development of a comprehensive national strategy and model national legislation that meets international standards and best practices.

Referring to the statistics of the national Commission for the coordination of measures to combat and prevent trafficking in persons since the entry into force of Law 27-14 on combating trafficking in human beings at the end of 2016, Ben Abdelkader noted that 17 cases were registered in 2017, compared to 80 in 2018 and 151 in 2019.

With regard to persons who have been prosecuted in the last three years, the minister said that 585 individuals, including 144 women and 84 foreigners, have been indicted.

As for victims of human trafficking, Ben Abdelkader reported 719 persons, including 283 victims of sexual exploitation, 35 persons exploited in servitude and 58 exploited in begging.

The number of wanted notices that had been issued at the national level had reached 137, he added, noting that 443 persons had been taken into custody.