EXECUTIVE SUMMARY OF THE THIRD AUSTRIAN REPORT ON COMBATING HUMAN TRAFFICKING

Transcription

1 EXECUTIVE SUMMARY OF THE THIRD AUSTRIAN REPORT ON COMBATING HUMAN TRAFFICKING Implementation of the Austrian National Action Plan on Combating Human Trafficking January 2012 to December 2014 Coordinated by the Federal Ministry for European and International Affairs 1

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3 INTRODUCTION AND SUMMARY I. Human Trafficking a Global Challenge I.1 Definition of Human Trafficking In the context of globalisation and growing migratory flows since the 1990ties, increasingly complex and often transnational forms of exploitation occurred under the general notion of human trafficking. Human trafficking is always a business at the expense of victims and a grave violation of human rights and human dignity regardless of whether it involves cheap labour, prostitution, forced begging, involuntary organ donation or enforced commission of crimes. Often, it is directed at the weakest part of society that is particularly vulnerable to false promises, deception and dependency: Poverty-stricken people, often lacking any formal education, without support of family and state institutions, children and youths from a difficult social background, mentally and physically impaired people. According to a United Nations report, the crime of human trafficking affects every single country across the world. 1. Even though the actual number of victims as well as the amount of illegal financial profits of the perpetrators can only be estimated, available data 2 clearly suggest that human trafficking is one of the most profitable illegal business sectors: estimated annual revenues of at least 32 Billion US-Dollars 3 compare with only a few convictions. Furthermore, only a small number of victims are actually identified as such. On 25 December 2003 the Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punish Trafficking in Persons especially Women and Children, supplementing the United Nations Convention against Transnational Organised Crime (UNTOC) entered into force. The Palermo- Protocol has 166 State parties (as of January 2015) and is close to achieve universal ratification. The main achievements of the Protocol are offering a definition of human trafficking (Art 3), the obligation to criminalise human trafficking (Art 5) and the four Ps approach referring to prevention, protection, prosecution and international partnership. According to Article 3(a) human trafficking consists of three elements: the act (recruitment, transportation, transfer, harbouring, receipt) unlawful means (violence, fraud, deception, abuse of power) the purpose 1 UNODC Global Report on Trafficking in Persons 2014, 2 United Nations UNODC Global Report ILO on Forced Labour (including forced sex work) EU-Eurostat

4 If the act is committed and directed at a child (anyone under the age of 18) it shall be considered as human trafficking even if no dishonest means have been used. Furthermore, human trafficking may occur both within and across national borders. Human smuggling differs from human trafficking insofar as smuggling usually not occurs for the purpose of exploitation but for the purpose of illegal border-crossing. II.2 A Grave Violation of Human Rights Following the adoption of the Palermo-Protocol, international efforts increasingly focused on a human rights-based approach in combating human trafficking. The United Nations High Commissioner on Human Rights prepared guidelines on human rights and human trafficking; UN Special Rapporteurs on human trafficking, on modern forms of slavery and on the sale of children as well as the organs of the respective UN Human Rights Conventions began addressing this issue. Through a UN Global Action Plan against human trafficking, a victim fund has been established at the UN Bureau on Crime Prevention in Currently, Dr. Benita Ferrero-Waldner is the directing Chair of the fund. However, legal instruments were adopted in particular on a European level, maintaining the definition of human trafficking as contained in the Palermo Protocol and furthermore pursuing a human rights and victim-centred approach. The Council of Europe Convention on Action against Trafficking in Human Beings entered into force on 8 February 2008 and is open to all States beyond the Council of Europe Member States. As of January 2015, 43 states have ratified the Convention including Belarus as a nonmember State. It includes comprehensive provisions on victims rights such as the right to care and support, the right to a period to recover and reflect of at least 30 days, the principle of non-punishment, if they were forced to commit crimes, compensation as well as monitoring of the implementation of the Convention by the independent expert group GRETA (Le Groupe d experts sur la lutte contre la traite des êtres humains). The Austrian expert Mag. Helmut Sax (Ludwig Boltzmann Institute of Human Rights) is a member of the Committee until the end of In the Rantsev Judgment (2010), the European Court of Human Rights held that member States are obliged to adopt appropriate and effective measures against human trafficking. The EU-Directive 2011/36/EU on preventing and combating trafficking in human beings and protecting its victims constitutes the most comprehensive instrument against human trafficking. It reaches beyond the Palermo Protocol and the Council of Europe Convention, establishes EU Minimum Standards on the definition and criminalisation of human trafficking and on the rights of victims (placing particular emphasis on a gender perspective and on minor victims and victims with special needs) and obliges member States to adopt preventive measures. 4

5 II. The Situation in Austria II.1 The Task Force on Combating Human Trafficking Austria is both a transit country and target destination of human trafficking, predominantly involving cases of sexual exploitation, labour exploitation, forced begging and child trafficking. Most victims are nationals of Eastern EU member States and European third States, some from Africa (mostly Nigeria) and Asia (mostly from the Philippines). The victim protection institutions LEFÖ-IBF, MEN VIA and other NGOs as well as Drehscheibe established by the City of Vienna provide care and support to persons per year. Austria is a party to all relevant international legal instruments on combating human trafficking (Palermo Protocol since 2005, Council of Europe Convention since 2006) and has transposed the EU directive on human trafficking into national law by 1 August To reflect a comprehensive approach in combating human trafficking, the Task Force on Combating Human Trafficking (TF-HT) was set up in November 2004 by a decision of the Austrian Government as the Austrian mechanism for coordination, headed by the Federal Ministry for European and International Affairs. In the TF-HT, representatives of all competent ministries, the federal provinces (Bundesländer) and NGO s cooperate closely. On 10 March 2009, Director-General Ambassador Dr. Tichy-Fisslberger was appointed First Austrian National Coordinator on Combating Human Trafficking and Chairperson of the TF-HT. Within the Task Force, separate working groups on child trafficking (headed by the Federal Ministry for Family and Youths), on prostitution (headed by the Federal Ministry for Education and Women) and on labour exploitation (headed by the Federal Ministry for Labour, Social Affairs and Consumer Protection) have been established. One of the TF-HT s and its working group s main tasks is to prepare and implement the Austrian national action plans as well as regular reporting to the Federal Government, the National Assembly and the European Commission. Furthermore, the Federal Ministry for European and International Affairs organises annual public events on the occasion of the EU Anti-Trafficking Day in October. The Task Force is the contact point for inter alia the EU, international organisations and governments of third States. The institutionalised cooperation between authorities and NGOs in the framework of the TF allows for a realistic assessment, whether national measures are successful in terms of a victim-centred approach. At the same time, investigative work of the police and criminal proceedings benefit from the involvement of victim protection institutions from the very beginning. Such cooperation has contributed significantly to successful proceedings against perpetrators. Due to the expertise of the TF-HT, Austria takes up a competent and active role in combating human trafficking on a European and international level and contributes to and launches several initiatives. Human trafficking was a priority during Austria s 5

6 Presidency of the Council of Europe 2013/2014 and theme of a common conference of the Council of Europe and the OSCE in Vienna on 17 February The OSCE handbook on preventing the exploitation of domestic workers in households of diplomatic staff 4 draws significantly on Austrian contributions. II.2 The National Action Plan on Combating Human Trafficking ( ) In March 2007 (for the period of ), May 2009 (for the period of ) and March 2012 (for the period of ), the Austrian Federal Government adopted national action plans on combating human trafficking. The Fourth National Action Plan will be submitted to the Austrian Federal Government together with the Third Austrian Report on Combating Human Trafficking and the reports of the three working groups. The national action plans reflect the comprehensive approach in combating human trafficking and cover national and international coordination and cooperation, prevention, victim protection, criminal prosecution as well as evaluation and monitoring. The following will illustrate activities for the implementation of the National Action Plan in a nutshell: II.2.a National and International Coordination and Cooperation In the years , the National Coordinator on Combating Human Trafficking Ambassador Dr. Elisabeth Tichy-Fisslberger invited TF-HT members to a total of 17 meetings. External experts and representatives of international organisations and NGOs participated on a regular basis. Representatives of the social partners are members of the working group on human trafficking for the purpose of labour exploitation and participate in TF events regularly. In order to intensify exchange with NGOs that are not member of the TF, two round tables with representatives of civil society were organised. Close cooperation with the federal provinces is crucial. Representatives of those provinces are members of the Task Force and its working groups. On 8 July 2013 and on 3 June 2014, the second and third annual event with representatives of the federal provinces took place in Graz and Linz respectively. In the course of the evaluation of the implementation of the Council of Europe Convention on Action against Trafficking in Human Beings by Austria, the Council of Europe Expert Committee GRETA visited Austria on 11 December Austria actively advocates the reinforcement of international cooperation on human trafficking in all competent international fora. Furthermore, on a bilateral level Austria cooperates closely with countries of origin and supports projects on prevention, victim protection and return. One of the major challenges is offering a perspective to individuals in countries of origin in order to prevent them from falling victim to human 4 6

7 trafficking. The Austrian development cooperation supports numerous projects in partner countries for this end. II.2.b Prevention Raising Austrian s awareness for the issue of human trafficking is a priority of prevention activities of the TF. Besides comprehensive information campaigns, responses to media inquiries and participation of TF members in numerous public events, the Federal Ministry for European and International Affairs organised a public event in October 2012, 2013 and 2014 on the occasion of the EU Anti-Trafficking Day. These events were opened by members of the Austrian Federal Government and supported by international organisations such as UNODC, OSCE, IOM and NGOs. Under an initiative led by the Federal Ministry for European and International Affairs, TF- HT experts designed the travelling exhibition Human Trafficking Slavery of the 21 st Century directed at Austrian students, pupils and teachers. The exhibition is presented annually in the course of the action days for Political Education and was shown in the Austrian Parliament in December 2012, at the event on the occasion of the EU Anti- Trafficking day 2013 and 2014 as well as the open house day of the Federal Ministry for European and International Affairs 2013 and Occupational groups likely to come into contact with victims of human trafficking are a particularly important target group of the activities of the TF. Numerous training events and seminars on sensitisation and awareness raising were thus held in the period of , often in cooperation with NGOs such as LEFÖ-IBF or ECPAT. Practical experiences have shown a clear connection between seminars and better identification of victims. II.2.c Victim Protection Austria follows a victim-centred and human rights-based approach in combating human trafficking. Victim protection is both prescribed by human rights law and indispensable for criminal prosecution. Victims are more likely to tell the truth when their rights and needs are taken care of. Victim protection measures regarding identification, comprehensive counselling and care, compensation as well as social integration have been efficiently implemented for the last years, the close cooperation between the competent agencies and victim protection institutions being of key importance. LEFÖ-IBF for women and girls from the age of 15, MEN VIA for men and Drehscheibe for children are the most important victim protection institutions in Austria and are members of the Task Force. LEFÖ-IBF is supported by the Federal Ministry of the Interior and the Federal Ministry for Education and Women and was entrusted with the counselling and support of female victims on the basis of Art. 25 Federal Security Police Act. The focus of LEFÖ-IBF is promoting the psychological, physical and social integrity of women and girls. Following crisis intervention activities, they are offered psycho-social counselling (in their mother 7

8 tongue if possible) and care including secure accommodation, and it is ensured they have access to medical care. In the event of proceedings against human traffickers, statutory psycho-social and legal assistance during proceedings (Prozeßbegleitung) is assured and co-funded by the Federal Ministry of Justice. In the period of , LEFÖ-IBF provided services and care to a total of 506 victims, 249 were offered legal assistance. Both the Council of Europe expert committee GRETA and the Federal Ministry for Labour, Social Affairs and Consumer Protection identified the need for special support and care services for male victims of human trafficking. Consequently, MEN VIA was established at the end of 2013 as a pilot project supported by the Ministry. Since the beginning of 2014, care and support have been provided to several victims. In the rollout phase, MEN VIA is expected to provide a similarly comprehensive set of care and counselling services as provided by LEFÖ IBF. Drehscheibe (a centre operated and established by the City of Vienna s municipal Department 11) is a crisis centre for unaccompanied alien minors, some of whom fell victim to child trafficking. Over the past few years, Drehscheibe has established a successful system of cooperation with Romanian and Bulgarian government authorities and NGOs. It organises the children s repatriation, provided that they receive comprehensive care and support in their home countries and are effectively protected against perpetrators. In the reporting period of , Drehscheibe has provided care and support to 828 unaccompanied alien minors and examined 332 cases of suspected child trafficking. Several measures aim at empowering (potential) victims. This includes in particular providing reliable information on rights, entitlements and support services. In 2014, UNDOK was established as a contact point for individuals without an official residence and labour permit. UNDOK is a cooperation of trade unions, the Austrian Chamber of Labour, the Austrian National Union of Students and NGOs and offers free individual counselling and support, in order to enforce employment and social welfare entitlements. In the year 2014, several presumed victims of human trafficking for the purpose of labour exploitation have been referred to victim protection organisations by UNDOK. Austria is host country of numerous international organisations and diplomatic representations and thus has a special responsibility towards protecting domestic workers of accredited diplomats or international staff from human trafficking and labour exploitation. The Federal Ministry for European and International Affairs developed effective control measures and takes up a leading role in this regard on an international level. In November 2013, an information event for all registered domestic workers was carried out for the first time, providing information on entitlements and support measures as well as offering the opportunity for personal exchange. A second event will be organised in Austria is granting every victim of human trafficking a period of 30 days to recover and reflect prior to taking any stay-related steps. After that period victims and witnesses of human trafficking from third States may receive a special protection residence permit, if 8

9 criminal proceedings have been commenced or other claims have been raised. This special residence permit was inserted into the Asylum Act 2005 (effective as of 1 January 2014) and thus transferred into the competence of the Federal Agency for Aliens and Asylum. This is expected to lead to concentration and abbreviation of proceedings and more efficiency ( case owner principle in the framework of potential asylum and alien related proceedings). Human trafficking forms an integral part of seminars for staff of the Federal Agency for Aliens and Asylum. Several legal improvements regarding victim protection have been achieved: - Since 2012, third-country nationals that find themselves in a situation of emergency, may be granted basic social services and care. - By way of an amendment of the Aliens Employment Act, the Austrian labour market is more accessible to victims and witnesses. - Following the amendment of the Victims of Crime Act, also victims of human trafficking who, at the time of the commission of the crime, have been residing illegally in Austria, are explicitly entitled to compensation, provided that they dispose of a residence title for special protection. II.2.d Criminal Prosecution According to both a study by the United Nations and the EU 5, the number of criminal proceedings against perpetrators remains small. During the period under review the Task Force thus set priority on criminal prosecution. Significant progress was achieved through continuous trainings for judges and prosecutors, the establishment of a special unit at the Higher Court in Vienna with a special competence for human trafficking cases as well as enhanced cooperation with victim protection institutions. The Haskovo case involving over 100 victims and 20 final convictions (as of February 2015) serves as a good example. An amendment of the criminal code relating to sexual offenses in 2013 tightened the offense of human trafficking (Art 140a Criminal Code) and pimping (Art 216 Criminal Code). Human trafficking can be punished by imprisonment of up to five years and, if the victim is a minor above the age of 14, up to ten years. In addition, exploitation now also includes exploitation for the purpose of begging and for the commission of an offense. II.2.e Evaluation/Monitoring All national action plans include regular reports and self-evaluation by the TF-HT 6 as well as by their working groups. Moreover, the Council of Europe (GRETA-Monitoring 5 UNODC Global Reports on Trafficking in Persons, EU-Eurostat 6 Annual and multiannual reports on combating human trafficking are available on 9

10 Mechanism) 7, the European Commission (report on the implementation of the EU directive to be submitted by April 2015) as well as a range of United Nations mechanisms evaluate the implementation of Austrian measures. The US State Department annually publishes a report on human trafficking covering every country. Further efforts of the Task Force focused on improving data collection as well as strengthening the research-based approach of activities. The Ludwig Boltzmann Institute of Human Rights is a member of the Task Force. III. Challenges in the field of Human Trafficking in Austria Even though Austria has implemented important measures covering all areas of combating human trafficking, efforts have to be consequently continued. Besides continuation of training and awareness raising measures, the National Action Plan for the period of sets the following priorities: The working group on human trafficking for the purpose of labour exploitation has made significant progress, by, for instance, developing indicators for the identification of victims of labour exploitation. Further activities should build on these efforts. Furthermore, criminal provisions regarding exploitation should be analysed as to their adequacy. In the field of victim protection, enhanced access to the labour market including qualification measures, compensation and the application of the non-punishment clause will be addressed. Challenges remain as far as access to compensation for victims of human trafficking, in particular the enforcement of awarded compensation, are concerned. In order to achieve that victims receive the awarded compensation and to prevent perpetrators from benefitting from criminal activities, the possibility of enacting further legal provisions in this area, also in light of international experience, should be assessed. The already advanced work of the working group on child trafficking on a draft instruction manual for the identification and support of victims of child trafficking should be finalized as soon as possible. The cross-linking and training of all relevant stakeholders, in particular in the federal provinces, should be enhanced. The Task Force promotes further developing the legal framework and will thus examine potential accession to new legal instruments of the ILO (International Labour Organisation) and the Council of Europe as well as improvement of national laws. One of the major challenges that remain is improving the situation of human beings in countries of origin. Despite budgetary constraints, further projects and international cooperation against human trafficking must be supported

11 ANNEX: Permanent Members of the Task Force on Human Trafficking (as of January 2015) Chair: Federal Ministry for European and International Affairs Federal Ministry for Labour, Social Affairs and Consumer Protection Federal Ministry for Education and Women Federal Ministry for Family and Youths Federal Ministry of Finance Federal Ministry of Health Federal Ministry of the Interior Federal Ministry of Justice Federal Ministry of Defence and Sports Austrian Development Agency (ADA) ECPAT Austria LEFÖ-IBF Intervention Centre for Trafficked Women Ludwig Boltzmann Institute of Human Rights MEN Men Health Centre Office of the Burgenland Provincial Government Office of the Carinthian Provincial Government Office of the Lower Austrian Provincial Government Office of the Upper Austrian Provincial Government Office of the Salzburg Provincial Government Office of the Styrian Provincial Government Office of the Tyrolean Provincial Government Office of the Vorarlberg Provincial Government Office of the Vienna Provincial Government 11

12 Imprint: Published by: Federal Ministry for European and International Affairs (BMEIA) Task Force on Combating Human Trafficking Coordination/Text: Ambassador Dr. Elisabeth Tichy-Fisslberger, BMEIA Minister Mag. Margareta Ploder, BMEIA Layout: BMEIA Hersteller: BMEIA 12