Trafficking in Human Beings as an Hourglass Paradigm

This chapter is based on the question “How many of the victims registered by the Member States of the European Union are not actually the same continuously exploited in one or between several countries (continued victimization) and/or exploited more than once but at different times (revictimization)?” Recognizing that it is empirically challenging to gather supportive evidence, it led us to explore the modus operandi of victimization as an (un)interrupted cycle that figuratively portrays THB as an hourglass. This chapter is a retrospective one on a specific country context and it is relevant for this reason, it has been written in 2017. Consequently, the statistical references (e.g., reports) as well as other data should be read having 2017 in mind.