Austria/Europe

Cheap Meat Comes at a Price: Exploitation in the Meat Industry

When people talk about the meat industry, the focus is usually on factory farming, cramped facilities, and animal suffering. The industry has had a bad reputation for years, and not without reason. Yet there is one issue that is rarely discussed in connection with cheap meat: the people who leave their home countries, go deeply […]

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Labour Exploitation in Europe – When Work Becomes a Human Rights Violation

Europe sees itself as a region of human rights, fair working conditions, and social security. Yet every day, thousands of people work under conditions that are far from decent employment. Whether on construction sites, in agriculture, in the meat industry, in private households, or in caregiving: labour exploitation is a structural problem in Europe that

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What Really Happens in Prostitution? The Account of a Former Pimp

What is really going on in prostitution? This question cannot be answered solely through statistics, newspaper reports, conferences, or books. Behind the term “prostitution” are real people with their own personal stories, experiences, struggles, and forms of dependency, people who have often also been victims of violence. Many of these stories remain hidden and are

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Human Trafficking Knows No Borders – What Recent Cases Reveal About Exploitation in Europe

Recent reports from Germany make clear what organisations working against human trafficking and forced prostitution are confronted with: behind seemingly legal employment, private flats and supposedly voluntary prostitution, highly exploitative structures can be concealed.Human trafficking does not only take place in remote regions or in secret. On the contrary: exploitation, human trafficking and forced prostitution

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When Help Becomes Dependency: The Silent Exploitation of Those Needing Care, the Aging and People with Disabilities

A society shows its character by how it treats its people in need of support. Older people, for example. People with disabilities. People who need care, or who cannot live independently due to an illness. But it is exactly these groups who often suffer forms of exploitation that rarely make headlines. It doesn’t always happen

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Another Suspected Human Trafficking Case in Tyrol  

The investigation by Tyrol’s State Criminal Office into two establishments in Innsbruck operating under the guise of massage studios, publicly disclosed in June, has once again brought attention to a problem often hidden from view: the exploitation of women in the context of illegal prostitution under the official cover of massage businesses. According to investigative

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Men in Prostitution: An Overlooked Reality

When prostitution is discussed, the dominant image is usually that of women and male clients. However, men who are exposed to these exploitative structures often remain invisible. This article examines how men work in prostitution, whether “voluntarily” as call boys or involuntarily as victims of forced prostitution within the context of human trafficking. The Many

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Young People in the Crosshairs: When Drug Dependency and Exploitation Come Together

The number of drug victims in Austria who are under-age is rising. Experts are sounding the alarm, and have been demanding for years that more attention be devoted to the issue. Girls from difficult familial or social backgrounds, who are deliberately targeted and influenced by people from the drug milieu, are being impacted particularly harshly.

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Human Trafficking in Tourism: The Case in Tyrol Makes It Clear

The current suspected case of human trafficking at a hotel in Tyrol unfortunately is not an isolated incident. As reported in the news since early May, the case has attracted significant public attention – and rightly so. It serves as an alarming reminder of how vulnerable non-citizen workers in Austria still are, particularly in the

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How offenders are prosecuted and why power often offers protection

Investigative work, the legal framework and structural barriers in the fight against human trafficking and exploitation. Law enforcement and systemic challenges Human trafficking is one of the most serious offences in Austria, involving people being forced into sexual services or other exploitative situations through deception, coercion, violence or exploitation. Due to its geographical location at

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