YEREVAN. - Armenia ranks first among CIS countries, where the level of trafficking has been reduced to minimum as a result of effective struggle.

Head of the International Organizations Department of the Armenian MFA, Vahram Kazhoyan, who is also the Head of the Anti-Trafficking working group, told the aforementioned to journalists on Friday.

According to him, pursuant to the data of 2017 published in the annual Trafficking in Persons Report of the US State Department, it is already five years Armenia has been included in the first group of states, where trafficking has been reduced to minimum as a result of effective struggle. At the same time, this list included 187 countries of which only 36 appeared in the first positive group. Armenia also appeared to be the only CIS country to appear in the first group.

“As compared to the first years of our independence, the number of trafficking victims has significantly reduced. If in 1992-1993, 200 victims were named in one case, in the recent years one or two people are named in [such] criminal cases,” Kazhoyan noted.

The expert also noted that Armenia has been combating the human trafficking for nearly 10 years.

Apart form this, he noted that Armenia is a source country of trafficking, the main flows whereof are directed to Turkey, Russia and United Arab Emirates (UAE).