The New Struggle Against Slavery

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In 1981, Mauritania became the last country in the world to abolish slavery. The decree signified a global end to slavery — on paper. But is slavery really over? Not at all. A form of modern slavery known as human trafficking, the recruitment or movement of a person through force, fraud, or coercion for the purpose of exploitation, still persists today, and is even on the rise in Europe! While this nefarious activity is not restricted to a single demographic, migrants are at higher risk than most of being targeted by traffickers.

What makes migrants to Europe so vulnerable to trafficking?

Migrant smuggling is a distinct offence from trafficking, but the former often leads to the latter. Human smuggling involves assisting an individual who voluntarily seeks to gain illegal entry into a foreign country, generally by transporting them unlawfully across the border. This transgression is so common that in 2022, 1.08 million non-EU citizens were found living illegally in different parts of Europe. These smuggled individuals could be citizens of a third-world country, suffering from poverty and desperate to escape. To them, an EU passport is like a key to heaven. And they are willing to go through hell to obtain it.

Human traffickers are well aware of this desperation, and well willing to exploit it for their purposes. A common method of trafficking is seduction. Here, a trafficker, colloquially called a ‘loverboy,’ fabricates romantic relationships with his victims in underdeveloped regions, and persuades them to move elsewhere with him. Another powerful tool of coercion is religion. Traffickers may pretend to be a messenger of God, and trick the uneducated into trusting them. They can even use religion to instil fear, threatening their victims with divine punishment if they do not comply. They then lure victims away from their homes under the guise of rituals, pilgrimages, or missionary work.

The easiest way to entice an impoverished, unsatisfied youth, though, is with the promise of a better life. Traffickers tempt their victims into migrating illegally to a country with more jobs, higher salaries, offering their transport and assistance along the way. Some victims do not realise that their migration is illegal; some are aware of this but go through with it anyway, having no other viable options. What none of them realise, however, is the horror they will face at their destination.

So, what happens to these migrants when they reach Europe?

More than half of all trafficking victims in Europe are sexually exploited. The remaining aren’t much better off: they are forced into harrowing physical labour, organised begging, and even criminal activity on a daily basis.

Ali, an Egyptian citizen, was convinced by a trafficker to move illegally into France for work. The trafficker employed him in strenuous construction work, fed him inadequately, made him sleep in a container, and even physically abused him. While Ali eventually escaped thanks to the Comité Contre l'Esclavage Moderne (Committee Against Modern Slavery), thousands more like him are still stuck in these inhumane conditions.

Their problem is only exacerbated by their silence. According to Zita Cabais-Obra, a Filipino trafficking survivor, victims are afraid to report their traffickers for multiple reasons: “one, they don't want to denounce because they don't want to lose their jobs and don't put their families to hunger. Two, they are afraid because their exploiters are maybe powerful and protected.” An illegal migrant in a foreign nation also has every reason to fear authorities, and see them as threats, rather than the saviours they are meant to be. This further deters them from seeking the police’s help.

Fortunately, where there is a problem, there is a solution. In this case, more than one. Multiple United Nations organisations, national governments, and non-profit groups have devised their own strategies to fight human trafficking. In Europe, trafficking is a top priority of European Multidisciplinary Platform Against Criminal Threat (EMPACT), the EU's primary channel against organised crime. Between 2018 and 2021 alone, EMPACT identified 17,688 trafficked humans. Another body making strides against trafficking in the EU is the Council of Europe (COE). What makes the COE’s methods so effective? And could they bring about an end to human trafficking in Europe?

The COE’s Convention on Action against Trafficking in Human Beings has been operating since 2008, going beyond the minimum international standards against trafficking to ensure better treatment of victims. The Convention provides a series of rights to victims of trafficking: the right to

- identification as a victim,

- the COE’s protection and aid,

- a minimum recovery time of 30 days,

- a renewable residence permit,

- compensation for the damages they have suffered.

Another unique advantage of this Convention is its strong Monitoring and Evaluation (M&E) mechanism. To ensure that the Convention is successfully implemented, the COE has set up two bodies: the Group of Experts on Action against Trafficking in Human Beings (GRETA) and the Committee of the Parties. GRETA, composed of experts in human rights and trafficking, is tasked with supervising and reporting on each state’s implementation of the Convention. The Committee of the Parties, meanwhile, analyses GRETA’s findings to propose recommendations to countries to build on their work. GRETA’s annual reports, available here, showcase the efficacy of this Convention.

In view of the rise in human trafficking for labour, the Committee of Ministers’ (the COE’s decision-making body) recommendation on “preventing and combating trafficking in human beings for the purpose of labour exploitation” was adopted in September 2022. This document suggests a series of measures for states to improve upon, including their labour market regulation, complaint mechanisms, and the identification of trafficking victims.

Member states should also:

“define the parameters of labour exploitation, through either law or guidance, and adopt country-specific guidelines on the interpretation and application of labour exploitation rules,” allocate resources, such as specialised police units, specifically to deal with this form of trafficking, make sure that both their private and public organisations investigate the possible presence of human trafficking somewhere in their supply chains.

With its extensive guidelines and reliable M&E procedures, we can trust that the COE’s work will have a diminishing effect on human trafficking across Europe. The end to human trafficking may be far away, but documents like the Convention on Action against Trafficking in Human Beings bring us one step closer on the path towards it.