Cyprus police participated in the global operation against human trafficking called Global Chain during which a total of 1,024 arrests were made across five continents, it announced on Monday.

In Cyprus, 17 operations were carried out at various locations, including bars and apartments, but no victims of human trafficking were identified.

The four-day operation began on June 8 and was carried out with the support of Europol in an attempt to combat human trafficking for sexual exploitation, begging or other forced crimes.

A total of 59 countries participated in the operation, which resulted in the identification of 2,010 potential victims and the arrest of 1,024 suspects, around a third of whom are suspected of being involved in human trafficking cases.

A further 201 suspects were identified for offences related to human trafficking.

The investigation revealed that the vast majority of victims are adult women, with 64.2 per cent trafficked for sexual exploitation, 20.9 per cent for other forced criminal activities, 11.3 per cent for forced labour and 2.1 per cent for other forms of exploitations.

Moreover, the investigations found that 86.4 per cent of underage victims were trafficked for the purpose of sexual exploitation.

Police identified victims of human trafficking from a total of 45 countries of origin, the majority of which were from Latin America, led by Colombia.

Other countries included Argentina, Venezuela, Nepal and Moldova.

Trafficking was reported to be taking place across borders in all of these countries, which demonstrates the international nature of human trafficking networks.

As part of the international investigations, checks were carried out on 140,737 vehicles, 20,342 properties, 6,133 flights and 565,470 individuals.