Human trafficking victims almost doubled in 2025
Last year's figure was the joint-highest over the past seven years
Malta registered 22 victims of human trafficking last year, the joint-highest of any year over the past seven years.
The figures, published by the National Statistics Office on Thursday, reveal a trend of gender-based violence, with most victims being women and most people prosecuted or convicted being men.
According to NSO’s analysis, the 22 human trafficking victims in 2025 were almost twice as many as the previous year, when 13 victims were recorded. The 2025 figure was matched only in 2022, while most other years registered significantly fewer victims.
In total, 88 victims of human trafficking were recorded between 2019 and 2025, just short of 13 each year on average.
Women from countries outside of the EU were most affected by human trafficking in Malta.
Of the 22 victims recorded last year, 21 were non-EU citizens, with the remaining victim being Maltese.
The victims included 16 women and six men, with one victim being a minor.
Typically, victims are trafficked into a life of sexual exploitation and forced labour, the figures suggest.
Since 2019, authorities have recorded 56 cases of people trafficked for sexual exploitation, including 16 cases last year.
Over the same period, there were 35 instances of forced labour, with a further six cases of other forms of exploitation.
Three Maltese nationals convicted of human trafficking in 2025
Between 2019 and 2025, 26 people were prosecuted for human trafficking, while a further 15 people were convicted of the same crime.
Of the four people convicted of human trafficking last year, three were Maltese, with the fourth being a third-country national.
Maltese nationals appear to be the most common perpetrators of the crime, accounting for eight of the 15 people convicted of human trafficking since 2019.
A further four were EU nationals, with three others being third-country nationals.
Meanwhile, 13 of the 26 people prosecuted for the crime since 2019 were Maltese.
A total of 11 of the 15 people convicted of the crime over the past seven years were men.
Men also made up the majority of those prosecuted, accounting for 18 of 26 cases.
The fight against human trafficking
Authorities have long struggled to get to grips with the scourge of human trafficking, with even financial regulators also roped into the matter in recent years.
Concerns also remain that official figures underestimate the true extent of trafficking.
In 2024, the CEO of the Foundation for Social Welfare Services warned that of the 26 people who sought the foundation’s help to overcome trafficking and exploitation, only six were formally recognised as victims of trafficking by police.
Nevertheless, a 2025 report by the US Department of State pointed to “significant advances” in Malta’s fight against human trafficking.