On 10 June, the Dutch House of Representatives approved the bill ‘Modernization and Expansion of the Criminalization of Human Trafficking’. The bill amends the Human Trafficking Article (Article 273f of the Dutch Criminal Code) providing a stronger legal basis to combat human trafficking and severe labour exploitation, which can help to better protect victims.
The bill not only clarifies and simplifies the existing complex legislative text, but also adds a new criminal offence, which criminalises the severe exploitation of the so called ‘severely disadvantaged’ persons. The Dutch trade union FNV and our members FairWork and CoMensha have lobbied for years, to ensure that the conduction of severe labour exploitation would also be criminalised, next to human trafficking, especially as they noted that many severe exploitation cases did not meet the high legal threshold of the human trafficking crime.
The new bill gives the Public Prosecution Service more options to take action against serious abuses in the workplace, such as the structural exploitation of migrant workers. However, what the legal position of victims of this crime will be in comparison to victims of human trafficking, is not clearly addressed in the law, and still to be seen in practice. Another important part of the bill is that the so-called non-punishment principle, which is now legally established within the human trafficking law. This was initially not included, but has been proposed by Dutch Parliamentarians to be added.
Moreover, some of the amendments now adopted by the Parliament where only foreseen as part of a second legislative revision of the THB article scheduled, to comply with the revision of the EU Anti-Trafficking Directive, including the addition of the exploitation of forced marriage, surrogacy and illegal adoption to the legal definition.
If the Dutch Senate agrees with the law, and there seems to be a majority in favour of this, it can come into effect already in 2026.
Copyrights: House of Representatives