Stop human trafficking Human trafficking
According to this document: “Trafficking in persons” shall mean the recruitment, transportation, transfer, harbouring or receipt of persons, by means of the threat or use of force or other forms of coercion, of abduction, of fraud, of deception, of the abuse of power or of a position of vulnerability or of the giving or receiving of payments or benefits to achieve the consent of a person having control over another person, for the purpose of exploitation. Exploitation shall include, at a minimum, the exploitation of the prostitution of others or other forms of sexual exploitation, forced labour or services, slavery or practices similar to slavery, servitude or the removal of organs; (…). Reasons of human trafficking: 1.Economic reasons: -high rate of unemployment, -high level of poverty, -lack of perspectives of finding legal work abroad. 2.Social reasons: -violence in family, -drug or alcohol addiction, -lack of interest in a child from the side of parents, -low – developed social care system. 3.Political and social reasons: -change of political system in given country, -political changes in neighbouring countries, -war and armed conflicts. 4.Legal reasons: -incoherent system of law, -violation of human rights, -lack of proper legal mechanism which would protect victims of human trafficking. Fall of the communist regime in Central-Eastern Europe contributes to free movement of persons, and in consequence to increase of occurrence such negative phenomenons as: organized crime, illegal migration or human trafficking. Poland is perceived as a country of origin of victims of human trafficking, transit country (through which a transfer of victims from Eastern to Western Europe takes place), as well as destination country (victims of human trafficking are conveyed to Poland from, inter alia: Belarus, Ukraine, Romania or Bulgaria. Although phenomenon of human trafficking is much more noticed than before, what influences on increase of awareness of society about this kind of crime and its threats, and institutions responsible for combating this crime undertake more complex activities, there is still lots to do in this field.
The most serious barriers in combating human trafficking are: A)Violence of human rights – victims of human trafficking do not have free access to administration of justice and to information about their rights and bout institutions which are responsible for their realization, B)Marginalization of victims of human trafficking - public opinion using stereotypes and prejudices, marginalizes the victims of human trafficking, what makes assertion their rights and return to social and professional life very difficult and discourage them from revealing their past, C)Inappropriate or/and insufficient identification of victims of human trafficking – victims are not identified, because they not aware of being a victim of such crime. They are not willing to inform about their situation, because they are afraid and ashamed of, and professional identification procedures are hardly used. D)Preventive actions do not reach to new “groups of risk” – opening new labour markets for economic migrants from Poland caused increase the number of “groups of risk”. Non – governmental organizations should act on a few areas simultaneously to effectively prevent human trafficking - they should: propagate the information and undertake preventive actions, as well as support identification of victims and provide them with professional assistance in access to administration of justice and in law enforcement. |
