The main causes of human trafficking are poverty, a lack of educational opportunities and the helplessness of the victims as well as the demand for prostitutes and workers to be exploited.

The situation report describes the phenomena of sexual exploitation, labor exploitation and other forms of exploitation of human trafficking. The latter include the exploitation of begging, forced marriage, child trafficking and the abduction of minors in return for payment within the meaning of the Criminal Code.

The "Human trafficking and exploitation" situation report of the North Rhine-Westphalia Criminal Police Office 2022 shows the cases in which the NRW police completed their criminal investigations in the period from 01.01.2022 to 31.12.2022. This is a total of 137 proceedings with 202 suspects and 717 victims.