Six victims of child abuse have been found and rescued after a world-wide operation to identify them.
More than 30 identification specialists – including UK experts – worked at Europol’s Brussels HQ to scour hundreds of child images and videos.
The work of the Victim Identification Taskforce (VIDTF) has led to six children being found and rescued from abuse, and one offender arrested.
In addition, the likely country of production of child sexual abuse material has been narrowed down in 236 instances.
Investigations are now continuing at a national level to identify further victims.
The following countries took part in this edition of the VIDTF – the 12th:
Australia, Belgium, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Canada, Colombia, Croatia, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, France, Georgia, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta, Portugal, Romania, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, UK, and the USA.
Since 2014, Europol has been gathering victim identification specialists from across the world on a regular basis to focus on unsolved cases of child sexual abuse.
The VIDTF is the largest recurring operation of its kind in the world.