U.S., April 3 -- The number of people across Europe identified as being victims of human trafficking rose by almost half between 2015 and 2018, according to the latest annual report from the Council of Europe's Group of Experts on Action against Trafficking in Human Beings

According to information provided by the authorities in the 47 countries bound by the Council of Europe's anti-trafficking convention, 15,310 people were identified as victims of human trafficking in 2018, compared to 10,598 identified victims in 2015.

"Different countries count victims of human trafficking in different ways, but the available data suggest there has been a considerable increase in the number of people identified as victims of this horrendous crime," s...