EU Civil Society Platform against Trafficking in Human Beings

Gazmir Memaj is the RENATE representative on the European Civil Society Platform.  The following report has been written by him to share with you his reflections on the meetings he has attended online over the last year.

‘’There have been two meetings of the EU Civil Society Platform against Trafficking in Human Beings during 2021. Both of these meeting were virtual meetings in Cisco Webex online platform. 

The first meeting was organized on 6th of May 2021 and it was a meeting where the EU Anti Trafficking Commission (ATC) and the staff of the EU ATC presented the EU strategy. In the second part of the meeting the results of 4 projects funded by EU were presented to the participants of the platform.  During this meeting unfortunately there was no time given for discussion or contributions from participants. The 2hour meeting was mainly used for the presentation of the above mentioned topics. 

The second meeting was organized on 30th of November 2021. 

During this meeting a presentation was given on the evaluation of the EU Anti-Trafficking Directive, followed by discussion on the challenges linked with the implementation of this Directive.

I offered some suggestions in the chat and I received feedback that the suggestions were considered and supported by members of the platform and by the EU ATC. It was good that RENATE was able to have a voice through member representation on the EU Civil Society Platform.

Below I am listing the suggestions which were made by me on behalf of RENATE:

1. Do not relate the crime of human trafficking only to that of the movement of the trafficked through means of transportation. We know that trafficking happens even without travel, transport and cross border movement. Sometimes victims are not recognized or given justice because there has not been this element of transportation in the human trafficking processes. Some national laws do not embed this reality.
2. Add to the already written EU definition for the people at risk of trafficking, the fact that services should be offered to P/VOT as well as to people at risk. 
3. It is highly recommended that the directives from the EU encourage migration services and the national state services in general, produce special updated EU and National State laws on Trafficking in human beings(THB). 
4. The Directive suggest that migration policies should be reviewed and made more relative for trauma informed and protection of Potential/VoTs and people at risk of THB. 
5. To avoid the punishment of P/VoTs for prostitution, (in countries where prostitution is prohibited by law), there should be considered exclusion of prosecution as criminals, Human Trafficking Victims, forced to work in the sex trade. ‘’

Gazmir Memaj (Mary Ward Loreto Albania)