Combating trafficking in human beings for the purpose of forced criminality

The ongoing migration crisis in the OSCE region has pushed the issue of human trafficking to the top of the agenda for many governments. One lesser-known aspect of this issue is human trafficking for the purpose of forced criminality, when exploiters force their victims to steal, cultivate drugs or engage in other illegal activity.

According to a recent Europol report, more than 1 million refugees arrived in Europe last year, presenting a major humanitarian challenge for the region. Many have disappeared – the report estimates that 10,000 children have gone missing – with a significant number falling prey to human trafficking networks.

The OSCE is taking the lead in tackling forced criminality and providing governments with ways to solve the various problems it creates.

“Protecting the human rights and dignity of victims is paramount in our approach to human trafficking,” OSCE Secretary General Lamberto Zannier said. “At the same time, we encourage participating States to rigorously enforce the law and aggressively pursue the criminals who exploit these victims so brutally.”

The 16^th Alliance against Trafficking in Persons conference will focus on the complex challenges associated with this subject, including how to protect victims, how to improve law enforcement investigations and how to expand the judiciary’s ability to carry out prosecutions of traffickers.

Combating trafficking in children

Children are one of the groups most vulnerable to trafficking for the purpose of forced criminality, especially when they are travelling on an unaccompanied basis. Europol recently stated that at least 10,000 unaccompanied child refugees have disappeared in Europe since their arrival, and it is extremely likely that some of them have fallen into the hands of trafficking syndicates.

Parosha Chandran, a UK human rights barrister who will appear on a conference panel, has worked extensively with human trafficking victims. In 2013 she won an appeal to overturn the criminal convictions of three Vietnamese children who had been trafficked in the UK and forced to work in cannabis factories. “This landmark case shows that people who are forced to commit crimes by human traffickers can receive justice in the courts,” she said. “Human traffickers must not be allowed to act with impunity.”

Another conference speaker, Olivier Peyroux, is a French sociologist whose work focuses on migration and trafficking, with a special emphasis on children.

He has found that children are often exploited in various ways over time.

“This can mean they are begging from age 6-10, forced to steal from 11-14, or involved in prostitution from age 15. However, there are strictly established boundaries between age groups and the different forms of exploitation.”

A broad forum

At this year’s conference experts will focus, in several panels, on the many forms of forced criminality, investigative challenges, victims’ rights as well as recommendations for policy and research. Practical recommendations collected during the conference will be presented during the final session.

In its 57 participating States, the OSCE promotes:

the creation of better mechanisms to identify and assist victims
the promotion of the non-punishment principle to protect trafficked people who are forced to commit crimes
more effective investigations and rigorous prosecutions

A strong track record

The OSCE has been at the forefront of anti-trafficking and the fight against forced criminality for many years. The Office of the Special Representative has produced a number of publications that focus directly on this topic or contain significant sections devoted to it.

The 2013 paper on Policy and legislative recommendations towards the effective implementation of the non-punishment provision with regard to victims of trafficking outlines a series of policy and legislative recommendations to help ensure that judicial and law enforcement officials do not prosecute trafficking victims for crimes they were forced to carry out. The document has since been translated into 7 languages, allowing its recommendations to be applied widely across the OSCE region.

For example, in 2015, the OSCE field operation in Serbia supported a working group comprised of judges, prosecutors, Interior Ministry representatives and academics which drafted their own guidelines based on the OSCE’s non-punishment recommendations. The field operation is now organizing presentations of the publication throughout the country, covering areas of the four appellate courts, allowing the judges, prosecutors and police officers to get acquainted with the principle.

Working with law enforcement to bring about more effective investigations and rigorous prosecutions is another essential part of the OSCE’s work. Every year, its staff collaborates with major law enforcement organizations such as Frontex. On the second day of the conference, a panel on challenges of investigation and prosecution will allow law enforcement officials to discuss international co-operation and the involvement of joint investigation teams when pursuing cases of human trafficking for forced criminality.