Overview and Comments from the EU Affairs Office on the Third Report on the Progress Made in the Fight Against Trafficking in Human Beings
Last Updated: 22 October 2020
by Abriel SCHIEFFELERS
The Commission has released the third report on the progress made in the fight against trafficking in human beings. This Report identifies key patterns and challenges in addressing trafficking in human beings, provides an analysis of statistics and outlines the results of anti-trafficking actions.
On the occasion of the EU Anti-Trafficking Day, the Commission also published the Study on the economic, social and human cost of human trafficking and the Study on reviewing the functioning of Member States’ National and Transnational Referral Mechanisms. The study on the cost of human trafficking notes that: “The estimated global annual profit from trafficking in human beings amounts to EUR 29.4 billion3 (conservative estimate). The total cost of trafficking in the EU in a single year is estimated at EUR 2.7 billion. This is due to additional services in the area of law enforcement, health and social protection, lost economic output, lost quality of life and the co-ordination of anti-trafficking activities. Such costs are triggered by the serious violation of fundamental rights of women, men, girls and boys by traffickers and continue to be borne by our societies as human trafficking persists.” These studies can be found in full here.
The progress report identifies as continuing challenges the low number of victims identified, the culture of impunity, and the COVID-19 pandemic that has led to an intensification of criminal activities and victims who find themselves further trapped by their traffickers.
The information in the report was collected with the assistance of national rapporteurs and equivalent mechanisms, the civil society platform against trafficking in human beings, and contributions from relevant EU agencies. The Salvation Army European Affairs Office is privileged to hold a seat on the civil society platform and to have contributed to this report with feedback gained from national contact persons and input from the mapping report questionnaire.
The European Affairs Office was pleased to see a focus on trafficking of Roma, the migration and gender dimension of trafficking for sexual exploitation, and the need for a harmonization of asylum procedures and victim identification. Furthermore, the office of the anti-trafficking coordinator has repeatedly emphasized the need to criminalize on the EU level the knowing use of services of victims of trafficking. The acknowledgement of these issues is the first step in the direction of a modernization of the legislative framework of trafficking and towards framing the issue and funding that acknowledges the added vulnerability dimensions of migration, gender, and ethnic status, including Roma. Additionally, the full implementation of the Anti-Trafficking Directive in all member states and the full realization of the rights of victims of trafficking is urgently needed.
As noted in the report, “The number of prosecutions and convictions remains low, whereas the number of victims remains high. The rather diverse legal landscape on criminalising the use of services exacted from victims of trafficking may hamper further efforts to discourage demand for such services. When victims receive assistance, support and protection, their needs are not taken into account as regards the forms of exploitation they are subjected to, their gender and age and their specific needs and circumstances. Data recording and reporting remains inconsistent. The concerns identified highlight the poor implementation of the Anti-trafficking Directive in Member States, and it needs to be further stepped up.”
The insufficient progress made and evolving trends call for a new strategic approach towards eradicating trafficking, which will be developed in the context of the Agenda on tackling organized crime. The Salvation Army strongly agrees with the need to step up anti-trafficking work on all levels to ensure that victims of trafficking are protected and receive justice for the crimes committed against them and believes that the modernization of the framework is needed to accomplish this.
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