Category
Europe
Our Rescue announces new partnership with Moldovan National Police to combat child exploitation and human trafficking. On May 20, 2026, Our Rescue signed a new formal partnership agreement with Moldovan National Police which will focus on strengthening efforts to fight child exploitation and human trafficking in Moldova. As part of the…
*Alias used to protect survivor identity. In 2023, Our Rescue supported an operation in Spain to help law enforcement take down a criminal group that was suspected of forcing 24 women from four different countries into forced commercial sexual exploitation. Six days a week, the women worked morning and night and were moved across multiple locations on Mallorca, an island in the Mediterranean Sea.
For over a year, Our Rescue has partnered with OSINT Industries to help law enforcement address human trafficking and child exploitation. This collaboration has now expanded through a formal agreement and ongoing joint efforts to equip investigators with advanced open-source intelligence (OSINT) tools and training that help rescue children and put predators behind bars. Together, teams have supported law enforcement agencies across Europe, including Romania, Italy, Kosovo, Spain, and Malta. These efforts focus…
On March 19, 2026, Romanian authorities carried out a significant operation to rescue a 13-year-old girl living in the deeply unsafe and sexually exploitative environment of trafficking. The young girl faced vulnerabilities to exploitation on multiple levels. Police reported that she came from a difficult family situation, suffered from multiple disabilities, and limited resources. Additionally, she was in emergency placement due to her family’s instability. In February…
On February 5, 2026, Romanian authorities carried out an operation in Constanța that brought a trafficking network to light and put an immediate end to the exploitation of two young women whose lives had been pulled into it. Investigators report a 15-year-old minor and a 19-year-old vulnerable young woman were manipulated…
Since at least November 2023, a transnational criminal organization was exploiting vulnerable women from Latin America, Europe, and Africa. The group lured the women through deception and debt bondage, controlling them through housing, and profiting from their sexual exploitation by managing five brothels and advertising services online. In addition to…
In Athens, organized crime networks were allegedly promoting foreign women into prostitution, by profession and for profit, by exploiting their income inside establishments operating as “strip shows.” Intelligence gathered by authorities indicated that the individuals were being controlled and profited from under conditions consistent with human trafficking. This prompted a coordinated law enforcement response. In the early morning hours of Friday, December 19,…
During the week of December 8, 2025, Our Rescue supported the Malta Police Force Cyber Crime Unit as they carried out an operation targeting perpetrators of child sexual abuse material (CSAM), following referrals from the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC). The operation focused on identifying and disrupting online exploitation activity. As part of…
**The data showcased here represents partial-year figures and should be considered preliminary. Final totals will be confirmed and released in the 2025 Annual Report. As we begin reflecting on 2025, one message stands out across every region and every program: lasting change happens when organizations and partners link arms and move together. This year, Our…
In Romania, a criminal network was suspected of human trafficking, pimping, and a range of other serious offenses, harming countless individuals. The group is believed to have exploited vulnerable individuals while profiting from high-risk drug trafficking, money laundering, and more. Once the full scope of the network became clear, authorities, with…
This year, Our Rescue had the opportunity to help bring a survivor-centered conversation on human trafficking to one of the world’s most influential gatherings of emerging leaders: the One Young World 2025 Summit. More than 2,000 young changemakers from over 190 countries came together in Munich, Germany to exchange ideas and solutions to…
Joint Operation Locates Brothels and Survivors in Athens On Thursday, November 6, the Sub-Directorate for Combating Trafficking in Human Beings and Goods of the Directorate for Combating Organized Crime carried out a series of operations across multiple areas in Athens, Greece. The purpose was to locate individuals who may be survivors of human trafficking and to shut down illegal brothels where they were being exploited. Throughout…
Operation Global Impact (OGI) 2025 was a groundbreaking international effort, bringing together law enforcement agencies and Our Rescue teams across three regions to tackle sex trafficking and child exploitation. In October, the operation concluded, and the final numbers are now in: 338 survivors rescued, including 74 children 243 individuals arrested,…
Operation Global Impact (OGI) 2025 continues to make remarkable progress across Latin America, Asia, and Europe, with 212 arrests, 140 adults rescued, and 69 children rescued in less than three months. Thanks to the dedication of our in-country teams and your ongoing support, we are helping law enforcement bring traffickers…
On October 8, 2025, Our Rescue was on the ground with Kosovo law enforcement in a targeted operation to stop the spread of child sexual abuse material (CSAM). This carefully coordinated effort spanned three separate locations and resulted in the arrest of three individuals responsible for distributing the sexually exploitive…
Within two days, Our Rescue personnel supported two major operations alongside the Romanian National Police, resulting in the dismantling of organized crime groups and the rescue of multiple survivors. On September 30, authorities carried out a targeted action in Southern Romania. This operation led to 5 arrests and the rescue…
Forty-four Colombian women thought they were leaving home for better opportunities. Promises of work and a better future drew them thousands of miles from home, all the way to Albania. But when they arrived, the truth quickly unraveled. There were no jobs waiting, only control, violence, and sexual exploitation. We…
A woman, lured to Greece by false promises of lucrative work, found herself trapped instead in a nightmare of exploitation. Deceived into thinking she would earn a good living, she arrived by plane just days before being locked into a cycle of sexual abuse and intimidation. The traffickers handed her keys to an apartment…
Authorities Dismantle Trafficking Operation in Eastern Europe, Rescue Two Survivors In Romania, a 57-year-old man allegedly spent five years trafficking two women in Eastern Europe and forcing them into being sexually exploited for his profit. According to Romanian authorities, in 2020 he began targeting women who came from at-risk situations,…
**In this story, the survivor’s name has been changed to protect her identity. Two years ago, Our Rescue worked alongside authorities to help dismantle an international trafficking ring preying on vulnerable women from Latin America and Africa. The traffickers lured them to Greece with false promises…
Thirteen women from Latin America and Eastern Europe arrived in Greece with dreams of a better future. They believed they had secured stable jobs, only to have their passports ripped from their hands and their identities stripped away. Trapped in a nightmare, their captors forced them into sex work under…
In February, Our Rescue’s Training & Prevention, Survivor Care, and Rescue Operations teams traveled to Malta—a beautiful island country on the Mediterranean Sea–with a shared mission: empower those on the front lines of justice. Malta is on the Tier 2 Watchlist of the U.S. Department of State’s Trafficking in Persons…
In a significant step against sex trafficking, Greek authorities, with support from Our Rescue and nonprofit A21, dismantled a criminal trafficking organization in December of 2024. The Directorate for Combating Organized Crime led the investigation, uncovering a network that had been operating since 2019. The traffickers targeted vulnerable women abroad,…
Surprise Sting Yields 18 Arrests and 18 Victim Rescues [Salt Lake City, UT] – November 7, 2024 – In October of 2024, OUR Rescue participated inOperation PRIOR, a multi-agency effort alongside the Spanish Policia Nacional (SNP), thePolicía Nacional de Colombia, INTERPOL, and the Spanish Guardia Civil. OUR Rescue wason the…
In a remote Roma neighborhood in Bulgaria, a mobile education center is bringing hope and knowledge to children who once lived in the shadow of exploitation. This innovative project is the result of a unique collaboration between OUR Rescue and Foundation for Hope, a local NGO that has been tirelessly…
Over the last 12 months, the Bulgarian Border Police (BBP) have investigated 31 cases of human trafficking and assisted numerous individuals using technical equipment and vehicles that were donated by OUR Rescue. So far, 14 of the cases have been presented for prosecution, while investigations are ongoing in nine others.
In a joint effort by the Hellenic Police, the Spanish National Police, INTERPOL, Our Rescue, A21, and Homeland Security Investigations, 22 individuals were apprehended.