Warming-up.

What economic, social and other conditions do you think promote human trafficking?

In what ways are children sometimes the victims of exploitation?

What actions do you think that nations can take to stop human trafficking and exploitation?

What do you think could be done to raise awareness about the issues of modern-day slavery and human trafficking?

What do you think might be the potential impact, if any, of raising awareness about these issues among consumers and policymakers?

     Read the following text. What measures should governments take to stop human trafficking?

Make sure you understand the meaning of the following words and word-combinations:

a negative connotation

the prevention of human trafficking

a transnational approach

to cross international

non-governmental organizations

training manuals

to be unaware of the effects and consequences of human trafficking

rehabilitation and counseling

Transnational efforts to fight human trafficking

Human trafficking has often had a negative connotation, and has been viewed as an unwanted activity by different countries around the world. These countries have formed organizations, laws, and educational programs geared towards the prevention of human trafficking. Having many countries involved in the prevention of human trafficking gives this subject a transnational approach.

Different countries have had different approaches when attempting to prevent human trafficking. Both governmental and non-governmental organizations have been created to combat the issue at hand. Law and legislation have been enacted in a variety of countries dealing directly with the prevention of human trafficking. These laws range from making prostitution illegal or prosecuting those who are caught trafficking human beings, to protecting those people who have been trafficked. Governmental and non-governmental organizations have both published and provided educational material about human trafficking to those who wish to read it. Training manuals, textbooks, and pamphlets have been printed in many different languages in many different countries on the subject of human trafficking and its prevention.

The response to human trafficking in terms of number of convictions recorded per year is still weak, especially compared to the number of victims. Most European countries record national conviction rates for human trafficking below one convict per 100,000 people. In Europe, there are more convictions for rare crimes such as kidnapping in Denmark (3 per 100,000 people), homicide in Finland (4 per 100,000 people) or robbery in Norway (5.8 per 100,000 people) than for human trafficking

The EU human trafficking prevention measures are aimed at: – discouraging the demand that fosters trafficking, i.e. employers hiring trafficked persons and clients buying sexual services from victims of trafficking, – training for officials likely to come in contact with victims, and of potential victims to war n them about the risks of falling prey to the traffickers.

The EU law provisions to combat human trafficking include:

- specific treatments for particularly vulnerable victims aimed at preventing secondary victimisation (no visual contact with the defendant, no questioning on private life, no unnecessary repetition of the testimony etc.), police protection of victims, legal counselling also aimed to enable victims to claim compensation; special protective measures are envisaged for children such as the taking of interviews in a friendly environment.

- a common definition of the crime, aggravating circumstances and higher penalties, as well as non-punishment of the victims for unlawful activities such the use of false documents in which they have been involved for being subjected to by traffickers.

- extraterritorial jurisdiction (the possibility to prosecute EU nationals for crimes committed in other countries), use of investigative tools typical for organised crime cases such as phone tapping and tracing proceeds of crime.

- co-ordination and coherence of the EU's external policy against trafficking in human beings in close cooperation with the EU institutions and agencies as well as with EU Member States and international actors.

The Republic of Belarus is one of the first countries, among CIS member-states, proceeded large-scale activities to tackle trafficking in persons.

With due account of international experience the Republic of Belarus worked out comprehensive national legislation, aiming at elimination of trafficking in persons, as well as a number of large-scale measure were implemented in the framework of State programmes to increase the effectiveness in combating trafficking in persons and ensuring national security.

One of the organizations working at preventing human trafficking is IOM Minsk (International Organization for migration) that has been active in the sphere of combating trafficking in human beings since 2002, cooperating both with the Government and non-governmental and international institutions to strengthen the country’s counter-trafficking capacity as well as to raise awareness and understanding of the issue and provide protection to the victims of trafficking.

IOM Minsk activities are based on four integrated and interrelated components:

Protection and reintegration of the victims of trafficking (VoTs);

Prevention and advocacy via increasing awareness of THB among at-risk groups;

Prosecution, criminalization and technical cooperation;

Partnership.

Rehabilitation Centre was opened by IOM Minsk in July 2006. The centre bacame the primary place where VoTs returning to Belarus receive comprehensive reintegration assistance and protection. The centre offers accommodation for VoTs and their children upon request. All services at the Rehabilitation Centre are provided with due regard to the patient’s freedom of choice, privacy and under strict confidentiality.

Questions to discuss:

1. Why is it difficult to have exact human trafficking statistics?
2. What are approaches to prevent human trafficking?
3. What are the EU human trafficking prevention measures aimed at?
4. What are the EU law provisions to combat human trafficking?