Stronger protection in migration hotspots to guard against human trafficking
Human
trafficking remains a grave concern in the European Union. It is also
one of the protection challenges in the migration hotspots where various
initiatives are aiming to help address the phenomenon. To mark EU
Anti-Trafficking day on 18 October, the European
Union Agency for Fundamental Rights (FRA) calls for stronger
anti-trafficking safeguards in hotspots. It highlights some of the
challenges and steps taken at hotspots to support EU-wide efforts in
addressing human trafficking in the context of migration.
In
its regular visits to Greek and Italian hotspots, the Agency has
advocated for increased attention on the issue of trafficking. This is a
key issue especially as increasing numbers of single women and
unaccompanied girls arrive in Italy from the main risk countries for
trafficking. Hotspots in Greece become seriously overcrowded affecting
people’s safety. In many EU Member States unaccompanied
children continue going missing with an increased risk of falling into
the hands of traffickers.
Important
steps have been taken by various actors operating in the field. For
example, in Greece in June, Standard Operating Procedures for
preventing and responding to sexual and gender-based violence were
finalised. They facilitate the joint referral for women, men, boys and
girls at risk, including victims of trafficking. Capacity-building
activities with a focus on human trafficking in hotspots
were stepped up with a series of workshops organised by Frontex for
deployed screening officers, the Hellenic police, the EU’s law
enforcement agency (Europol) and others active in the field. In Italy,
targeted counselling of new arrivals at risk, changes
to the guardianship system and increased availability of shelter for
unaccompanied children has resulted in shorter times children spend in
hotspots and better protection.
Even
so, continued attention to preventing and responding
to human trafficking and other forms of sexual and gender-based violence
is needed.
Stronger protection safeguards are needed in the hotspots to provide
appropriate, gender specific and child sensitive assistance and
protection for victims of trafficking. These include:
·
Improving the identification and vulnerability screening procedures to ensure timely support and referral of
victims of trafficking with a focus on particularly vulnerable groups, women and children;
·
Continuing offering guidance and training for frontline staff, including police officers and border guards on
identifying potential victims of trafficking. This could also extend to how best to handle traumatised people;
·
Cooperating with support groups who can offer specific assistance such as identifying, counselling or supporting
victims;
·
Providing
specific safeguards for unaccompanied children by placing them in
specialised facilities, adequate
to cater for their specific needs, and enacting a coherent guardianship
system centred around the need to safeguard the best interests of
unaccompanied children;
·
Ensuring gender-sensitive shelter allocation, mixed female-male police patrolling of the hotspots at night, and
access to secure and well-lit sanitary facilities to prevent further victimisation.
Such
safeguards could significantly contribute to EU-wide efforts to address
human trafficking and raise awareness, just some of the aims of
the EU Anti-Trafficking day.
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