On July 30, 2013, the first World Anti-Trafficking Day was declared by the United Nations.

The day aims to raise awareness about trafficking and help victims and the general public inform themselves of their rights. Trafficking in human beings continues to be a serious problem throughout the world, taking the form of sexual exploitation, domestic slavery, forced labour, forced begging, coercion to commit crimes, forced marriages and even organ trafficking. Although it is not known exactly how many people have been trafficked due to a lack of reliable statistics, the current estimate is millions of victims worldwide. The profits made by traffickers are estimated at 29.4 billion euros in a single year worldwide.

To combat trafficking in human beings, the European Commission presented a new strategy (2021-2025) in April 2021. The strategy aims at prevention, breaking criminal business models, and protecting and empowering victims, while promoting international cooperation. As the COVID-19 pandemic creates conditions for increased exploitation of the most vulnerable, this strategy sets out measures for the EU and its Member States to strengthen their response to this phenomenon.

Caritas Europa, always mobilised for the dignity of people, has been working against all forms of exploitation and human trafficking for years. We denounce policies that increase the vulnerability of people and the risk of being trafficked. We promote a culture of respect by raising awareness among the general public and training those in contact with potential victims. In collaboration with other Civil Society Organisations, European institutions, and the United Nations, we place the interest of the victims at the centre. We advocate for their rights of victims at all stages in the fight against trafficking. On this World Anti-Trafficking Day, we want to highlight some of the work being done by our members working in the field.

In five regions of Ukraine, local Caritas organisations organise information and awareness raising events against human trafficking such as street actions, flash mobs, quizzes, exhibitions and more. Information about safe travel and jobs, about the dangers of exploitation and trafficking, and human rights, is shared with members of the general public.

Caritas France works to raise awareness among the general public, assisting people at risk, training volunteers and employees, and supporting victims of trafficking in conjunction with the associations of the Collectif ‘Ensemble contre la traite‘ (Together against trafficking). Additionally, Caritas France is heavily involved in advocating for a reference mechanism for the identification and support of victims, for better protection of children against trafficking and sexual exploitation. Following the example of the United Nations Special Rapporteur on Trafficking in Human Beings, Caritas France calls for the victims of trafficking who are forced to commit crimes, to be considered as victims and for the perpetrators of trafficking to be arrested.

Human trafficking in Albania is a problem that still affects hundreds of vulnerable young people. The methods of exploitation have changed since the 1990s, when abduction and exploitation took place out in the open. Today the phenomenon is hidden, but is unfortunately still strongly present and rooted in the country, especially in the poorest areas. Faced with this situation, religious leaders have shown themselves open to inter-religious collaboration, aware that a phenomenon of this magnitude can only be overcome if all actors work together, advocating towards a common goal. Caritas Albania is running a pilot project to strengthen the cooperation and engagement of the Inter-religious Council of Albania and its members to increase the capacity of religious representatives at the local level, to raise awareness of trafficking in communities and to prevent trafficking of at-risk categories.

Caritas Lebanon continues its advocacy to amend the law 164/2011 against human trafficking, to increase investigations to stop the chain of human trafficking. Staff continue to raise awareness and intervene to protect victims. Their experiences in trafficking for labour exploitation and domestic slavery is undoubtedly of benefit to the European Caritas organisations in this battle.

In Spain, Caritas de Canarias has been working for more than 30 years with women in prostitution and/or victims of human trafficking. The Azotheistas (women of the roof) is a project that has run for two years from ‘Centro Lugo’, where women from a context of prostitution or who are survivors of sexual exploitation have decided to meet every week with two objectives. The first is to create a meeting place where they can help each other and let off steam, creating a common living space. The second is to make their reality visible, as well as society’s responsibility in the perpetuation of this form of exploitation, through their social commitment and by denouncing rights violations so that real alternatives are proposed.

Les Azothéistes (women of the roof)
Les Azothéistes (women of the roof)

In June, the partners of the Euro-Mediterranean anti-trafficking project met by video conference to take stock of their work together over the last year and to ‘capitalise on 9 years of experience‘ combatting trafficking in human beings. This partnership also bore fruit in 2019 in the form of an action research on child trafficking, which produced the publication ‘Invisible Children, an unpunished crime‘.

Moving forward, there are several challenges and opportunities regarding the fight against trafficking at the Euro-Mediterranean and global level: the development of the COATNET (Christians against trafficking) network needs to be strengthened; the new priorities in the fight against trafficking (labour exploitation, victim support, internet and human trafficking) need to be addressed; and  training tools proposed by Caritas Internationalis on the use of international mechanisms in the fight against trafficking should be promoted and further developed.

Together, as a network, we will to continue to support the victims of this invisible crime, and advocate for more to be done to combat those who perpetrate i.