Human trafficking is pervasive and growing form of organized crime and represents one of the major international problems. In recent years, trafficking in human beings has reached worrying proportions, particularly trafficking in women and children, where is also noted gender specificity of this phenomenon, and Europe is estimated to have the highest percentage of trafficking for sexual exploitation due to the supply and demand principle. Given that this is one of the most difficult examples of human rights violations, whose victims originating from European Union Member States, where they are transported and exploited for various purposes, this paper will present a concise and critical view of this phenomenon in the European Union. By the definition of the concept of human trafficking and the presentation of a critical review of the definition and exploitation, we will also comment on the most important documents related to the legislation and prevention of human trafficking, which was brought by the European Union, and then focus critically on the legislation of the Republic Croatia as a new member. Also, we will look at a number of empirical researches dealing with this phenomenon, including statistical data on member states and related characteristics of victims, and we will also show the index of exploitation of victims of trafficking in human beings in the European Union, calculated from several Member States with the most relevant statistical data. Finally, we will point out the most important thing - the role that social work professions have in combating the fight against trafficking in human beings and helping victims, as a profession that is extremely sensitized and active in the fight against human rights violations.