OSCE Special Representative stresses importance of victim identification in combating human trafficking
LISBON, 25 June 2015 – The OSCE Special Representative and Co-ordinator for Combating Trafficking in Human Beings, Ambassador Madina Jarbussynova, today underscored the need to improve victim identification at an international seminar on key challenges in the fight against modern-day slavery.
“There is a large gap between the estimated number of trafficked people and the number of identified victims,” said Jarbussynova. “More needs to be done to train officials in law enforcement, migration, borders, or labour inspections so that they are able to spot trafficked people.”
The failure to identify victims is one of the key reasons of why it is so difficult to prosecute the exploiters, making human trafficking a low-risk, high-profit crime.
According to the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime 2014 report, there were 34,000 prosecutions globally between 2010 and 2012 and only 13,000 convictions. These figures must be understood in the context of the International Labour Organization’s 2012 estimate that there are roughly 21 million victims of forced labour and human trafficking in the world at any one time.
The Special Representative also spoke about the need to increase prosecutions and tackle the socio-economic roots of trafficking. She voiced concern about the problem of forced migration, since the growing number of uprooted people can become easy targets for human traffickers.
“Nowadays human trafficking in the OSCE region is often intertwined with vulnerabilities deriving from migration processes,” said the Special Representative. “Criminal networks often take advantage of people’s migration projects and exploit their vulnerability both along migration routes, and in destination countries where migrants are often in a precarious situation.”
The event was organized by the Government of Portugal and featured speeches by a number of leading government officials including Internal Administration Minister Anabela Miranda Rodrigues and State Secretary for Parliamentary Affairs and Equal Opportunities Teresa Morais.