Russian Prosecutor General's Office
Russian and Greek prosecutors are set to jointly fight transnational crime, including human trafficking, the Russian Prosecutor General's Office said on Wednesday.
These and other issues were discussed at talks in Moscow by Russian Prosecutor General Yury Chaika and his Greek counterpart Efterpi Koutzamani.
According to the International Organization for Migration (IOM), tens of thousands of women are sent every year to Western Europe alone to work as prostitutes, Russian Deputy Prosecutor General Viktor Grin said at a roundtable held as part of cooperation between the two countries' prosecutors.
"Young women and sometimes young men are trafficked from one country to another via well-organized channels. Among the reasons why human trafficking has gone on such a scale is the openness of borders and an increase in international migration flows, flaws in the migration laws, official corruption, not excluding the countries of destination," Grin said.
One of the dangerous manifestations of organized crime is "the desire by transnational organized criminal groups not only to extract profit through human trafficking, trafficking of illicit drugs and weapons, but also to legalize it, which is often used to finance organized crime, among other things," Grin said.
"Particular attention should be paid to regular exchange of information about instances of criminal activity, joint and concerted preventative efforts in this sphere, including the measures to rehabilitate crime victims, the measures to detect and prevent flows of criminal proceeds, and through working meetings between experts for further development of cooperation methods," the Russian deputy prosecutor said.
"Exchange of experience between prosecutors in the sphere of fighting organized crime and human trafficking will make the common work more efficient," Chaika said.
For her part, Greek Supreme Court's Prosecutor General Koutzamani said that "cooperation between the two agencies must contribute to the further strengthening of cooperation between our countries."
"She stressed that Russia and Greece have long-time close relations. The two nations are united by their common history, religion and culture," the statement said.
The Greek prosecutor general especially highlighted the fact that "in contemporary history, the two countries acted as a united front against fascism and sustained heavy losses during the Second World War.