Preventing Child Trafficking to and through Austria: International, Regional and National Response Mechanisms

Transcription

1 ACADEMIC FORUM FOR FOREIGN AFFAIRS - AUSTRIA UNION ACADEMIQUE DES AFFAIRES ETRANGERES - AUTRICHE Preventing Child Trafficking to and through Austria: International, Regional and National Response Mechanisms HOCHSCHULLIGA FÜR DIE VEREINTEN NATIONEN AKADEMISCHES FORUM FÜR AUSSENPOLITIK-ÖSTERREICH GRAZ - INNSBRUCK - KLAGENFURT - LINZ - SALZBURG - WIEN United Nations Youth and Student Association of Austria - Academic Forum for Foreign Affairs (UNYSA-AUSTRIA - AFA) Johannesgasse 2/2/32 A-1010 Vienna AUSTRIA international@afa.at

2 2 Abstract: Irene B. STOECKL, MA 2005 Preventing Child Trafficking to and through Austria: International, Regional and National Response Mechanisms Child Trafficking has grown to a world-wide and extremely serious problem. Without overestimating there is hardly any country in the world that is not affected by child trafficking - either as country of origin or as country of transition or as country of destination. Preventing child trafficking is certainly one of the most difficult tasks and that because of several reasons. Children react as victims differently than adults. Those that are committing the crime are hardly to find and only with rather effective measures including protection of the victims. Without prosecuting those that are engaged in child trafficking prevention is impossible though. Some purposes for which children are trafficked are even happening behind closed doors. Therefore, not even the numbers of children trafficked are known. Estimations about how many children are trafficked range from 1 million to 2 million worldwide. In the European Union roughly children are trafficked. Being both a country of transition and a country of destination Austria is severly affected by child trafficking as well. Hardly noticed, the children smuggled to Austria for exploiting them as risen in the past two years considerably. Being located at the crossroad of Western and Eastern Europe makes Austria even more attractive for this form of organized crime. Eventually, preventing child trafficking is not the responsibility of one group nor is it the responsibility of just the countries of origins. In fact, child trafficking can only be prevented if all stakeholders that are affected participate in the combat. The international, the regional and national level need to work together on an equal basis with every contributing at what they are best and most effective at. For that the levels need to know from each other and the work they are doing. This is also true for the different actors within the levels whether it is international organizations representatives, government representatives or representatives of civil society. Therefore, it is the goal of this paper to provide some ideas of how child trafficking can be combated on the international, regional and national level. Different mechanisms will in this sense be presented.

3 3 Introduction - Analysing the Scope of the Problem: Within in the last few years child trafficking has not only grown as an international phenomenon but also as a problem in Austria. Being located at the Center of Western Europe, Austria is geographically well situated as being a country of destination of child trafficking but also as a transit country. Still, child trafficking is a widely unknown topic among the Austrian public and hardly noticed. Due to this fact the conclusion lies near that politics, although aware, is paying not that much attention to the problem as it is not directly affecting the outcomes of elections for example. Consequently, the business of child trafficking is rather lucrative for those that are involved. Without much attention the problem has become truly serious. The number of children trafficked to Vienna, the capital of Austria, for example, for the year 2004 had already been reached in the first six months of the year In the year 2004, in Vienna alone, 350 children were brought to the central crisis center of the City of Vienna (MA 11 - Drehscheibe). A majority of the children were originally from Bulgaria. The increase of Bulgarian children trafficked to Vienna was from the year 2003 to the year 2004 an astonishing 259%, while, due to several measures, the number of Romanian children trafficked had dropped from 156 in the yar 2003 to 16 in the year For one reason or the other the number of children trafficked from Romania to Austria has decreased while the number of Bulgarian children has increased. Without doubt the reason for that is not that the children from Romania have become less qualified for doing their job as trafficked children. By looking at those two examples the presenter of this paper and conductor of the STOP CHILD TRAFFICKING CAMPAIGN would like to draw the attention of how child trafficking can be prevented on the international, regional and national level. Keeping this in mind, the example of Romania and its relation in this sense to children trafficked to Austria will be emphasized on. In order to do so, it is important to understand the different levels on which child trafficking must be tackled. Eventually, child trafficking falls into the category of transnational organized crime. Therefore, it is important that a number of stakeholders get involved into the process of preventing trafficking in children. The three levels are the international level with International Organization (such as the UN and its different agencies), the regional level with Inter-governmental organizations (such as the European Union) as well as other regional organizations (such as the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe - OSCE) and third the national level with its ministries (such as the Minister of Interior) and other governmental agencies. Without prioritising, the importance of Non-governmental Organizations (NGOs) in preventing child trafficking should not be disregarded. NGOs are important in the process of raising awareness, the reintegration of children into the society of the countries of origin (as they often operate locally) as well as victim assistance programs in co-operation with local authorities for protecting those that would like to testify against their perpetrators. Due to the great numbers though and not wanting give priority to one or the other NGO, neither NGO will be mentioned in this paper. Additionally, the importance of the police both at the national level and international level (Europol, Interpol) should not be forgotten. It is essential to set up effective training methods for the police in the effected countries as their personnel is very often the first that are getting in contact with the victims. The case of child trafficking is in this sense is also very different to other offenses. As a matter of fact the children picked up by the police, although at the first sight the offenders, are in the end the victims. Even more than other victims of human trafficking children need to be treated with care as they are usually under stress and pressure of their perpetrators. Although, they often act very cool and like adults when picked up by the police, the longer they stay at youth centers, though, the more they become children again and they are loosing their mask. Therefore, the paper will also focus on the different parts of the chain of child trafficking - from the recruitment of children in their countries of origin to them picked up by the police to the possibilities of reintegration and rehabilitation. Especially the last part in this chain might be critical in finding ways of preventing child trafficking.

4 4 Eventually, the paper should also make it clear that (as it has very often been in the past) prevention of child trafficking is not solely the business of the countries of origin and all programs that are implemented for its prevention are carried out in these countries. There is a need for also realizing programs in countries of destination and transit. These programs might range from simple awareness raising campaigns for the country s public to the training of the local police and might start at the reforming of the national legislation in order to deal with the problem more effectively. The Chain of Child Trafficking - From Recruitment to Re-integration: There are two main parts in the process of child trafficking. Firstly, the part when children are trafficked for different purposes and secondly, the part when children are caught by the police and brought into detention and are then possibly re-integrated. In the chain of child trafficking the first part is guaranteed but the second not necessarily as, foremost, many children are being unaccounted for. The unknown numbers of children might be twice as high as the known numbers. Globally it is estimated that around 1 million children are being trafficked but the numbers might suggest that there are even 2 million if not more. Within the first part of the trafficking chain there are several sub-parts which make up the actual process of the crime trafficking. They are: 1. Recruitment of the children in their countries of origin 2. The smuggeling of the child to the destination countries 3. The exploitation of the child in the countries of destination by several means, although numbers already show that 40% of the countries of destination are at the same time countries of transit. By looking at the European Union, many children, once entered the Schengen territory stay three to four month at one place and are then moved to different parts of the European Union. They might even be moved within the country itself. In Austria especially the main urban centers are destination for traffickers. They include mainly the cities of Vienna, Graz, Linz and Salzburg with Vienna being the linchpin. Sometimes, children trafficked to Austria are trafficked to Vienna and are then moved for one day to one of these cities. Intentions for Trafficking in Children: Subsequently, children are being used for different purposes of which the following are known for Austria: - Forced begging - Forced stealing - Forced prostitution Additionally, there has been a case where children should have been trafficked through Austria to the UK for the purpose of using those children for organ transplants. In co-operation with the respective authorities this case could have been prevented. Depending on the countries of origin, the patterns of how children are being used and for what purpose differs. In this sense, the gender of the children is also different. In the case of Bulgaria, many children are girls that are trafficked for the purpose of begging and stealing mainly. In groups of two to three those girls need to collect around 350 EURO for their perpetrators. Usually, the groups have a leader who is the oldest and who introduces the younger girls of what they have to do. If the girls are not successful in their endeavours it is the oldest girl that gets accounted for. There, she needs to collect the missing amount of money by going into prostitution (as this is the best paid job a child can do in this business in Austria - usually 200 EURO/hr can be earned). The younger girl distracts the victim that they steal the money from and the oldest steals the money or other valuable goods. Not only do children steal from pedestrians but they are also shop lifting. Essentially, these children are not stopping from any goods that shops offer. After all, the children are under extreme pressure of fulfilling their job as they are guaranteed to be punished when not doing so. Cases of children stealing from offices in the city of Vienna are known as well. In this case, children pretend that they need to use the bathrooms at the offices, a second child will then enter the office and steal office facilities such as fax machines, telephones or whatever is removeable. The age range of children trafficked to Austria is as wide as the purpose they are trafficked for. Children can be as young as six or eight years but as old as 15. One rule is though that they need to be old enough to understand the tasks they are asked for.

5 5 Sometimes, children that are older are trafficked and they must pretend to be younger (they need to look younger as well of course) in order to escape prosecution by Austrian law and fall under the under-age legislation for crimes. One other common habit is that the children are changing their identities up to one time per day for the same reason than the pretending of the younger age. Only when they are caught for a crime several times with one identity is it possible to take their fingerprints and register them. Countries of Origin: Despite all that countries of origin from where children are trafficked to Austria are as diverse as the intentions they are trafficked for. Children are getting trafficked mainly from Southeastern and Eastern Europe but they even get trafficked from as far away as Mongolia, China and Ivory Coast, Nigeria plus Chile from South America. The map below shows the trafficking routes for both Europe itself and the whole world. Pic. 1: Trafficking Routes of Children to Austria

6 6 Pic. 2: Trafficking Routes from countries other than Europe to Austria When looking at the distribution of trafficked children coming from outside Europe Africa gets the biggest share followed by Central Asia to the Far East. In this case it is again true that children coming from different countries are also to some extent trafficked for different reasons. As a result, Chinese children trafficked to Austria are very often pretended to be the children of owners of Chinese restaurants. Very often children are trafficked because of the one family one child policy of China and therefore families give their additional children away - especially girls which are less valubale than boys. Eventually, those children are then helping their parents in these restaurants being in reality forced to work. The group of Chinese children trafficked to Austria is difficult to grasp as the Chinese community is very secretive to the outside world. Plus the fact that the existence of Mafia-like structures within the community makes it almost impossible for prosecuters to investigate trafficking cases. Eventually though, the question comes up of how Austria can help to prevent this horrible business. As said above it is impossible to tackle the issue on a solely national level as it falls into the category of transnational organized crime. Therefore, it is inter-linked between the international, regional and national level. In this sense the international level can be looked at as being supra national - making up international conventions as agreed upon within international organizations. These conventions, ideally, are then incorporated into national legislations. Preventing Child Trafficking - The International Level Within the international community, especially the specialized agencies of the United Nations are involved in formulating international standards for preventing child trafficking. Still, there are some difficulties as child trafficking can be tackled from many different angles. After all, these different aspects may include the human rights aspect, the aspect of rights for children, the crime aspect, the health aspect (as many children might be infected with sexually transmitted diseases like AIDS when doing their job), the aspect of forced labour and many others. Consequently, there is a number of UN organizations dealing with the issue of trafficking in children. These organizations include: - UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) - dealing with the technical aspects of the crime of child trafficking such as drawing up of international legislative standards,

7 7 - Commission on Human Rights (CHR) - dealing with the human rights aspects, The Right of the Child Convention falls within this organization, - International Labour Organization (ILO) - dealing with the aspect of forced labour and child labour, - UN Development Program (UNDP) - dealing with the development aspect of the issue, as many children are coming from developing countries and countries with economies in transition. But the UNDP is also working on training manuals for the police, - World Health Organization (WHO) - dealing with the issue of diseases that children might get when being forced to work as prostitutes, - UN International Children Fund (UNICEF) - dealing with the issue of children itself. Keeping this list in mind, it becomes clear that dealing with the issue on the international level is quite diverse. Looking at one of the most important parts of the problem, the UN Convention on Transnational Organized Crime should be emphasized on. UN Office on Drugs and Crime - UNODC: The UN Office on Drugs and Crime is the UN organization responsible for dealing with the technical aspects of illicit drug trafficking and consumption as well as crime in general. Being an inter-governmental organization the UNODC is dealing solely with transnational matters. Hence, the Office has nothing to do with a simple case of pick pocketing for example. Having its headquarters in Vienna, the UN Office on Drugs and Crime is divided into different units. One of these units is the Anti-Human Trafficking Unit which is responsible for implementing the, by the states agreed conventions on the international level. The conventions themselves are negotiated at the Sessions of the Commission on Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice (CCPCJ). Accordingly, the UN Convention against Transnational Organized Crime and the Protocols thereto entered into force in November 2003 after being adopted by the resolution A/RES/55/25 at the 55 th Session of the General Assembly in November To the date, when this paper was finished, 147 countries are signatories and 106 are parties to this convention. Austria itself has signed the Convention in December 2000 and ratified it in September Within this Convention the Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punish Trafficking in Persons, Especially Women and Children is of special importance for the issue of child trafficking. Like the Convention itself the Protocol was adopted at the 55 th Session of the General Assembly in November Having signed the Protocol in December 2000 as well Austria has still not ratified the Protocol. Still, Austrian legislation has taken up the issue and has incorporated key aspects into its national legislation (but more to that later). When ordering this UN Convention as a booklet from the UN Headquarters somebody gets a publication of about 100 pages accompanied by another book which shows Legislative Guides for the Implemention of the United Nations Convention against Transnational Organized Crime and the Protocols thereto with 500 pages. The Protocol dealing with the issue of child trafficking is 10 pages long. Within this Protocol a clear definition of the term Trafficking in Persons is given: For the purpose of this Protocol: 1. 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 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; (d) Child shall mean any person under eighteen years of age. 1 1 UN Convention against Transnational Organized Crime, p. 42f.

8 8 The Protocol also states clearly that consense by the victims does not mean that the crime is less serious. This is especially true when it comes to children. As a matter of fact children can never give consent to the traffickers. With this UN Convention and its Protocols one important outcome is that countries are provided with international crime standards on which they can base their national legislation on. Additionally, the Office with its Anti-Trafficking Unit has set up a Global Programme against Trafficking in Human Beings (GPAT) in co-operation with the United Nations Interregional Crime and Justice Research Institute (UNICRI) and which was launched in The three main components of the Global Programme are: 1. Data collection and setting up of a database of trafficking flows, 2. Research and assessment, 3. Technical Co-operation. 2 Further, the UNODC s Anti-Human Trafficking Unit set up a Technical Co-operation Program, in which seven countries are currently involved. They cover the continents of Africa (Benin, Nigeria, Togo - this is especially important as there are a number of children trafficked from Nigeria to Austria), Asia (Philippines, Vietnam), Europe (Czech Republic, Slovak Republic) and Latin America (Brazil, Colombia). The goal of this Technical Co-operation Program is on the national level raising awareness, training of police and law enforcement officers and strenghtening victim and witness support. 3 Although Parties to the Convention on Transnational Organized Crime and its Protocols are States, the Convention and its relevant Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punish Trafficking in Persons, Especially Women and Children is also under Article 16 of the Protocol open to regional organizations:...2. This Protocol shall also be open for signature by regional economic integration organizations provided that at least one member State of such organization has signed this Protocol in accordance with paragraph 1 of this article... 4 As a matter of fact, the European Community has signed the UN Convention in December 2000 and approved the same in May As for the Protocol regarding human trafficking it has signed the protocol in December 2000 as well. Regional Organizations The two main regional organizations in fighting human trafficking and especially child trafficking in Europe are certainly the European Union and Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE). The European Union - EU Since 1996 the European Union has been actively in engaged in developing comprehensive and multidisciplinary mechanisms to combat and prevent trafficking in human beings and the sexual exploitation of children. Eventually though, there is a specific department of the European Commission dealing with the issue. The Directorate General of Justice, Freedom and Security - The European Commission s responsible department Within the European Union the Directorate General (DG) of Justice, Freedom and Security (one of 36 departments of the European Commission) is dealing with the issue of trafficking in human beings. Being the smallest department of the European Commission the Directorate General is also the newest. Essentially, it is consisting of 17 policy units 5. As a matter of fact the Directorate D internal security and criminal justice - is dealing with trafficking in its section Fight against terrorism, trafficking and exploitation of human beings and law enforcement cooperation. Due to the terrorist attacks in Madrid, the unit has intensified its efforts towards fighting terrorism June June UN Convention against Transnational Organized Crime, p June 2005

9 9 Despite that, the tasks of the unit include the contribution towards the development of the Commission policies, representing the Commission in council working groups as well as with Europol, the Task Force of EU Police Chiefs, the European Police College (CEPOL), Interpol and the Council of Europe; co-ordinating the Commission s expert group on trafficking in human beings and the participation in evaluations concerning Member States implementation of policy and legal obligations 6. Essentially though, it can be concluded that trafficking in human beings, and consequently in children, is mainly dealt with from the technical perspective. As mentioned above the European Community has signed the UN Convention on Transnational Organized Crime in December 2000 and approved the same in May In its Council Decision from 8 December 2000 the signing of the UN Convention is dealt with. Within this decision member states are called upon to ratify the Convention and its Protocols as well. Eventually, the Council Framework Decision from July 2002 is dealing in more depth with combating trafficking in human beings. In this decision special emphasis is also drawn to children as victims of human trafficking and the fact that they are more vulnerable than other victims. Essentially, formulation in this decision are similar to those included in the UN Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punish Trafficking in Persons, Especially Women and Children. In Article 7 (Protection of and assistance to victims) two out of three paragraphs are dedicated to children as victims 2. Children who are victims of an offence referred to in Article 1 should ben considered as particularly vulnerable victims pursuant to Article 2(2), Where the victim is a child, each Member State shall take the measures possible to ensure appropriate assistance for his or her family. 7 Paragraph 3 is of special importance as there have been reports where the families of child victims are put under pressure by the perpetrators. In this case, the offender knew the family of the victim and was blackmailing the victim that something would happen to her family if she would not consent to anything the offender wanted of her. Even when the girl was already in custody and care by local Viennese authorities did the perpetrators threatened the girl s family in order to prevent her from confessing to the police. As a result local police in Romania where the girl was trafficked from was informed and the house where the family lived was put under constant surveillance by the police for protecting the family. The Experts Group on Trafficking in Human Beings Following this Council Decision the Commission Decision 2003/209/EC of March 2003 set up a consultative group to be known as the Experts Group on Trafficking in Human Beings. This experts group is made up of individuals having gained experience in the field at level of the administration of the EU Member States and candidate countries as well as inter-governmental, international and non-governmental organizations involved in the combat against trafficking in human beings or an academic research for public or private universities or institutes 8. In total, the expert group should consist of 20 members with a distribution of seven members coming from the administration of EU Member States, four members from the administrations of Candidate Countries and nine members from inter-governmental, international and non-governmental organizations active at the European level 9. As mentioned above the Commission under the DG for Justice, Freedom and Security is co-ordinating the work of the experts group. Consequently, the experts group called for strenghtening EU actions against trafficking in human beings as the problem of trafficking in human beings also in vulnerable groups such as children has grown considerably in the past years and actions being taken would be essential. As a result the issue of trafficking in human beings is a human rights violation and falls under Article 5 par. 3 of the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights that Trafficking in human beings is prohibited. 10 Without doubt though, the European Union is not just active within its own boundaries and Commissions but also in other regional organizations. In fact, the Member State that got the EU Presidency June Official Journal of the European Communities, 1 August 2002, p /209/EC Decision of 25 March 2005, p /209/EC Decision of 25 March 2005, p MEMO 04/303; 22/12/2004, Trafficking in Human Beings

10 10 at the time of the respective conferences of regional organizations, for example, is in its statements also acting on behalf of the European Union. Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) The Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe - OSCE - is comprised of 55 member states. Within this organization the Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR) is dealing with the issue of trafficking in human beings. Additionally to that, the organization appointed a Special Representative on Combating Trafficking in Human Beings. The appointment of this Special Representative is a result of the OSCE Ministerial Council Decision from Maastricht December Within this same decision the OSCE decides to endorse the OSCE Action Plan to Combat Trafficking in Human Beings 11. This OSCE Action Plan was decided upon by the Permanent Council in its 462 nd Plenary Meeting in July Consequently, this Plan of Action comes also in the form of an Annex to the Ministerial Decision. This Plan of Action followed the Stability Pact Task Force on Trafficking in Human Beings in South Eastern Europe. The Action Plan addresses the problem comprehensively covering: - Protection of Victims, - Prevention of Trafficking in Human Beings, - Prosecution of those who facilitate or commit the crime. 12 As with all documents of this kind the OSCE relies on the definition of trafficking in persons as set up by the United Nations. Under the actions for OSCE Institutions and Bodies, the Action Plan also calls for data collection and research, particularly on trafficking in children also taking into account past research and to engage in exchange with the UN Children s Fund (UNICEF). When focussing on children alone the Action Plan dedicates one paragraph under Part V: Protection and Assistance. 13. Protection of children 13.1 The OSCE as a whole shall give special attention to the issue of trafficking in children and to recognizing the vulnerability of unaccompanied children. Efforts should be made to develop co-operation with specialized international agencies, especially the United Nations Children s Fund and relevant international NGOs, on expert meetings, research and the development of guidelines promoting the best interest of the child. 13 Respectively, the Action Plan also encourages member states to establish their own national action plans. As of March 2004 Austria had not had such an Action Plan but in November 2004 a Task Force was set up to deal with the issue of human trafficking. Hence, in May 2004 the OSCE appointed Dr. Helga KONRAD, former Austrian Minister and former Chair of the Stability Pact Task Force on Trafficking in Human Beings for South-Eastern Europe, as the Special Representative on Combating Trafficking in Human Beings. Certainly, with her appointment the issue has got more strive and more attention. Within the mandate of the Special Representative on Combating Trafficking in Human Beings are the following tasks: - Assisting participating states in the implementation of commitments, - Ensuring the co-ordination of OSCE efforts, - Strenghtening the co-ordination among the various authorities of the participating states, - Raising awareness among the public and with that raising the political profile, - Operating in the whole OSCE area - Providing and facilitating advise 11 OSCE Decision No. 2/03 Combating Trafficking in Human Beings (MC.DEC/2/03) 12 OSCE MC.DEC/2/03, Annex, p.1 13 OSCE MC.DEC/2/03, Annex, p. 17

11 - Co-operating with relevant international actors, Supporting the Special Representative in her work is the Anti-Trafficking Assistance Unit and is in its endeavours co-operating with other OSCE institutions such as the Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights. Appropriately, the Ministerial Decision of Sofia 2004 was entitled Decision No. 13/04 The Special Needs for Child Victims of Trafficking for Protection and Assistance. As the name already states, this Decision puts special emphasis on children making it clear that child victims of trafficking need to be treaded differently and with more care than other victims and they have other needs. Therefore, it lies within the responsibilities of the State Parties to strenghten the relevant governmental structures for children. In the first half of 2005, the issue of child trafficking as a separate topic gained ground. In March then, a OSCE High-Level Conference with the title Alliance Against Trafficking in Persons: Combating Trafficking in Children took place at the OSCE Headquarters in Vienna. Due to its STOP CHILD TRAFFICKING CAMPAIGN the United Nations Youth and Student Association of Austria (UNYSA-AUSTRIA -AFA) was allowed to participate as a NGO observer at this conference. Accompanied by expert s presentations state representatives should put together more concrete and effective measures against child trafficking. Overall, the presentations of these experts would have been extremely helpful. In the plenary though state representatives were only interested in reading the by their governments prepared papers than to listen to the experts. As it has been the case with many other government conferences and in many different topics, every representative is primarily interested in defending the country s national interest to an extent that compromise and results are hardly possible. Agreements that are being made are happening usually outside the conference rooms in talks among delegates and probably side events. At this conference the European Union one of the most important actors when it comes to regional measurements against child trafficking in Europe was represented, by the then presidency, Luxembourg. In the capacity of speaking for the European Union the representative of Luxembourg emphasized on the importance of prevention of sexual exploitation of children and child pornography on the internet. The European Union intends to draft a full agenda an report on Best Practices. Eventually, draft operational guidelines should bring renewed dynamism. Further, specialized police units should be established 15. Eventhough, the European Union and the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) are setting up many measures and is actively involved in international conferences and conventions against child trafficking as set up by the United Nations and others, it is still for the member states and its national governments and authorities to implement these measures. The Austrian Response - National Level of Combating Trafficking in Children Summorizing, Austria constitutes of 9 federal provinces with each having a capital, where local authorities are able in many fields to draw up their own legislations very independently. The capital of Austria, Vienna (also making up a federal province by itself and its own capital at the same time), is also with its close to 2 million inhabitants the largest city of Austria. Despite Vienna, all other cities (capitals of the other provinces) are comparably small not exceeding inhabitants for the second largest city. This fact is especially important to mention, as traffickers are searching for cities where anonymity among the inhabitants is existing. In cities and towns where everybody knows everybody trafficked children do not go unnoticed and are discovered rather fast. As a result, there are only a few cities in Austria interesting for criminals engaged in child trafficking. Geographically Austria lies at a strategically well-situated position for those that would like to traffick children to and through Austria. Therefore, child trafficking has grown to an increasingly negative phenomenon in Austria. Being previously disguised by the problem of illegal immigration and smuggeling of migrants (as an illegal activity being negatively evaluated by the Austrian public and authorities), trafficking in human beings and children had wrongly been part of the above mentioned problem. Only in the past few years have victims of trafficking been identified as such. 14 Mandate of the Special Representative, 13 June Report from the OSCE High-Level Conference, UNYSA-AUSTRIA - AFA, p. 2f.

12 12 For the Austrian public victims of child trafficking come visibly in the form of begging and stealing children in the streets of the major cities - in particular, streets in the inner city (mainly shopping streets and pedestrian precincts). As most pedestrians are essentially using these streets for shopping or going to work they notice these children as begging children like any other beggars. Those that are victims of these children, when they get their purse stolen, are hardly aware, that it were victims of child trafficking that stole their goods as offenders of these incidents are rarely caught. Eventually, there is no real season for trafficking in children. Some might think that the time before Christmas and similar events are very popular for child traffickers as people are willing to give, it has also been the case that the number of children picked up by the police had grown after the Christmas season in January Even the for Austria typical cold and wet winters do not distract traffickers from forcing children to beg and steal. Being usually the third stage in the trafficking chain child prostitution and pornography are not noticed by the general public - like the other forms of child trafficking - as they are usually happening behind closed doors. Until now, Austria has not been a country were material of child pornography has been produced. Child prostitution is common though, as those that would like to sexually abuse children are paying a high price for them. Child victims of trafficking can earn around 200 EURO/hour if not more when going into prostituition. To a majority the victims are girls. Depending on the age and whether the girl is a virgin or not the price can go up. Very often child traffickers leave out the stages of sending the children begging and stealing and solely use them for prostitution. The numbers of children trafficked for the different purposes is clearly better known for those that are used for begging and stealing than those that are used for sexual abuse. The distribution of for what purpose children are used, are approximately 30% for begging, 60% for stealing and 10% for prostitution. There are two main levels on which trafficking in human beings and in particularly child trafficking is tackled - on the national level and the local level. This is important to mention as local authorities may run their own programs against child trafficking. The national level - the ministries: As it is the case on the international level it is rather difficult to put the issue of child trafficking into one category. Therefore, there is a number of ministries of the Austrian government dealing with the problem of child trafficking. Some of the Ministries involved include the Ministry of Interior, the Ministry of Justice, the Ministry for Social Affairs and even the Ministry for Foreign Affairs. As the competence is divided among the ministries the co-ordination among these Ministries becomes even more important. By the end of the year 2004, a Task Force was set up to deal solely with Human Trafficking being comprised of the various ministries under the co-ordination of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Goal of this Task Force is to set up co-ordinated and well planed measures against trafficking in human beings. Further, it lies within the goals of that this Task Force to prepare for the Austrian EU Presidency in the first half of the year 2006 as the Austrian government would like to make the issue of trafficking in human beings a priority of its presidency. The Austrian Legislation: Within its legislation Austria is mainly dealing with trafficking in human beings in its Criminal Code. In fact, an additional paragraph was added in May 2004 tackeling solely the issue of trafficking in human beings. Based on this paragraph, it is stated of what a victim of trafficking is as well as what happens when somebody is engaged in trafficking in human beings. Under Paragraph 104a the law says that those that are committing trafficking human beings might expect imprisonment from six months up to five years. In the case of offenders engaged in child trafficking the span is even higher - ranging from one year to 10 years in prison. Despite the execution and conviction of offenders, the local level is extremely important in Austria when it comes to combating child trafficking as the local level s initative may variy from province to province considerably. As Vienna is the main destination for victims of child trafficking, measurements and tools to prevent child trafficking are particularly developed and implemented.

13 13 The Local Level - the Case of the City of Vienna In the case of Vienna, the Municipal Department 11 - MAG ELF Vienna Youth and Family Offices. Although this department is dealing with issues of youth, children and families on the national level - such as no violence within families in Austria - it has also dedicated one part to the issue of foreign unaccompanied minors (essentially victims of child trafficking). There is one center in Vienna ( Drehscheibe ) that is serving as a shelter for the victims and provides them with everything they need as soon as they are brought to this center. After all, this center has not gone unnoticed by child traffickers. In fact, they even tell the children to ask the police for bringing them to the center when they are caught. The reason for that is that the children should feed themselves at the center and then flee again to continue their job. As the shelter is not there and especially not allowed to lock the children up, they have always the right to move freely and come and go whenever they wish. Therefore, for those that are responsible at this shelter are rather powerless when it comes to keeping the children at the shelter and protecting them. Still, this center is one very effective measure to combat child trafficking in Vienna. Working closely together with the Viennese police the center is fast to react to helping victims of child trafficking. One positive side-effect is that it is possible to keep track of the numbers of children and to keep track of their countries of origin and of how old they are resulting in a very valuable database. Local initiative goes regional Additionally, to the work that is done on the local level this institution is also aware that one piece in the prevention of child trafficking and the rehabilitation of victims is the country of origin. Therefore, there are a number of programs being implemented in co-operation with the government of Romania. This programs aim at re-integrating victims of child trafficking in the society. As a result a number of centers in Romania are being set up where children find shelter as soon as they are brought back to their home country. In this centers children do not only find shelter but are also able to enter programs of victims protection. In co-operation with the International Organization of Migration (IOM) programs are being developed that children that would like to discover their perpetrators are able to enter victims assistance program. In this case the children get new identities - if necessary their families too - as well the possibility to enter school and other educational programs (vocational training, etc.) for them having the chance for getting a job in the future. Many cases have been reported where children are successfully re-integrated and are now pursuing a career in Bucharest or other parts of Romania. Being in its medium stage the program should be extended during 2005 and might be realized in other countries such as Bulgaria as well. As already mentioned above, there is an increasing number of children trafficked from Bulgaria to Vienna. The number of children trafficked to Vienna in 2004 has already been topped in the first half of Measures for combating the trafficking in children from Bulgaria are urgent. Although Bulgarian authorities have intensified their border patrol in the year 2004 and literally closed their borders the results were short lived as closing borders is not an effective method for combating child trafficking. Essentially, the numbers of children trafficked might get down but as soon as the borders are getting opened slightly or the traffickers adapt their methods the numbers go up immediately. Primarily young girls around the age of 10 to 15 are being trafficked to Vienna from Bulgaria. The methods are rather innovative. Sometimes the traffickers pay the families of existing children money to issue a passport for their children. This children are looking similar to a child that the traffickers held under their control. Eventhough, the child with the legally issued passport is never leaving the country a different child that looks alike is entering the country of destination with the passport of the still in Bulgaria located child. The child with the passport from the other child is then committing all sorts of crimes in Vienna. As soon as the child was caught by the police the child was registered with the name of the child still living in Bulgaria. Today, the child that has never left Bulgaria is registered in the databases of a number of European countries as being a criminal. Should this child ever decide to travel to any of these European countries it will be arrested immediately. Eventually, this local initiative shows clearly that, although International Conventions and agreements are important, it is still up to those that work in the field. By less bureaucratic means is it possible

14 14 to quickly react to changing situations. This is especially true when somebody considers that the person working in the field can, for example, just call up the responsible person in the other country to arrange and co-operate whereas the international level needs project proposals and the way through diplomatic channels. International Response Mechanisms vs. National Response Mechanisms: A Conclusion Summorizing the different mechanisms - on the international, regional and national level - is it possible to priotize one over the other or are they important in their own respective ways? The answer to that is simple and complicated at the same time. If it were not necessary to have international, regional and national mechanisms at the same time nobody would pay for them. Eventually, international mechanisms that come in the form International Conventions such as the UN Conventions against Transnational Organized Crime are without doubt essential. Without discussing the issue on the international level countries that fail to react to combating child trafficking might get away to formulize it in a less diplomatic way. Although they can for once or twice try to cover their unability to react by presenting statistics that work for their advantage they can certainly not cover up on the long term. In the end, states, also due to their national pride, are interested in keeping a positive image to the outside world. Despite that, the formulation of international standards and norms in the form of International Conventions give the countries the opportunity to exchange their experiences on the diplomatic parquet. Best Practices can be put in clear frameworks. From these conventions those countries that are really willing to combat child trafficking are then able to integrate these norms into their national legislations. Without monitoring though International Conventions become hardly effective. After all, it is those countries that clearly have a problem with child trafficking that are very often denying that they have one. They might then sign and ratify the International Convention on Transnational Organized Crime but are not really serious about implementing the, there mentioned, international standards. For that, it needs monitoring mechanisms. It is certainly not enough, as with many other issues, to hope that countries are always willing to implement conventions voluntarily. In cases where member states threaten to withdraw from the organization or from the convention or to not pay their membership fees, ways need to be found so that these things are hardly happening. Certainly, states will always try to use tools to push their national interests through. Therefore, one way might also be to start with the states of the willing - with a group of states that are willing to do something - and to then admit new states on the long run than to always search for consensus at the expense of higher standards. Examples such as the European Union or at the other end of the scale military alliances have always started in that way. Coming to the regional level, it is clear that mechanisms as set up by regional organizations are not to underestimate as different regions in the world have different problems or in the case that they have the same problems they might have differents aspects of them. Children trafficked to the Middle East for the purpose of serving as camel jockeys are certainly not trafficked for the same purpose to Central and Western Europe. The same might be true for children trafficked from Latin America to the US for the purpose of forced adoption. Therefore, mechanisms set up in these other regions might not apply for the European Union and other countries in Europe. As a result, regulations issued by the European Union best suit the problems of its Member States. This is the same for the Organization on Security and Co-Operation in Europe (OSCE). Additionally, Member States of the OSCE also include countries of Eastern and Southeastern Europe as well as far reaching as the Caucasus Region. Therefore, the OSCE might be easier to react when it comes to field missions and projects implemented in the countries of origins for example. They might also provide policy advise to local authorities. The lobbying factor of these regional organizations should also not be underestimated since the appointment of the Special Representative, and with that her enthusiasms, has caused raising of awareness of the problem among the national authorities plus the need that they should do something now. These national authorities are then an essential factor as they are the actual implementors of the international standards. Sometimes, these national actors might not even be aware that they are actually implementing standards that were agreed upon at International Conventions before. Eventually though, they are doing the actual field work. In this sense, work done with the victims or with discovering the offenders. The more local the level gets the more actors are working within the frameworks of the legislations right above them knowing exactly those laws and legislations.