The number of people who sought help from Aġenzija Appoġġ's human trafficking services seems to be increasing year-on-year, according to data presented to parliament on Monday.

Data tabled by Minister for Social Policy Michael Falzon shows that the unit within the Foundation for Social Welfare Services dealt with 23 human trafficking cases between January and June of this year.

This compares to 26 through all of 2023, 24 in 2022, 18 cases in 2021 and 26 cases in 2020.

Of the 23 people who sought help in the first half of this year, 11 cases were still under investigation while nine were confirmed cases of human trafficking.

This compares to 14 cases filed in 2023 that are still under investigation and six that were confirmed human trafficking cases that year.

The data, filed in reply to questions by PN MP Graziella Attard Previ, shows that 11 cases reported in 2020, eight cases reported in 2021 and 12 in 2022 were still under investigation.

A total of 14 cases, nine and eight were confirmed as human trafficking cases in 2020, 2021 and 2022 respectively.

Falzon clarified that the data included only people who sought help from Aġenzija Appoġġ's human trafficking services.

Separately, the National Statistics Office compiled data linked to human trafficking from various entities. He explained that the FSWS provided support to people even if their case was not yet officially deemed to be of a human trafficking nature by the police.

Attard Previ originally asked for the number of identified or reported human trafficking cases, year-on-year, dating back to 2020. She asked for the figures to be broken down by Maltese, asylum seekers and economic migrants. 

Most of those seeking help were in Malta for work purposes: