A Europol operation conducted between 12 and 23 May, identified and safeguarded three children who were victims of sexual violence, the European agency announced in a press release on Monday.
About 50 cases were handed over to national authorities for further investigation.
Experts in victim identification from 30 countries, including Belgium, analysed over 100 million images and videos of child sexual abuse during the operation, conducted at Europol’s headquarters in The Hague, as part of the Victim Identification Task Force (VIDTF).
Its aim is to identify perpetrators and victims from millions of images seized worldwide in judicial operations.
This was the sixteenth edition of the VIDTF.
Investigators from different countries provide specific professional expertise, as well as diverse cultural perspectives and language skills, which are crucial to understanding the global scale of these crimes, Europol explained.
This diversity often proves vital in interpreting subtle clues in images that can lead to identifying a location or a victim,it added.
Since the launch of these identification operations in 2014, 940 children have been rescued and over 283 criminals arrested.
