La Strada International welcomes the renewed commitment expressed by G7 Leaders on 17 June to prevent and counter human trafficking, particularly in the context of addressing migrant smuggling.
Human trafficking is often a transnational crime that crosses borders and continents. In their statement, the G7 Leaders acknowledged the need to dismantle transnational organised crime networks that profit from both migrant smuggling and human trafficking. This recognition is a crucial step in ensuring a more coordinated global response to these serious human rights violations.
However, it remains essential to distinguish clearly between migrant smuggling and human trafficking. While these phenomena can be interconnected, they are profoundly distinct. In general, the individuals who pay a smuggler in order to enter a country do so voluntarily and are not necessarily exploited in the process, whereas the victims of human trafficking are often duped or forced into entering another country where they are exploited.
In line with EU legislation, trafficking in human beings is “the recruitment, transportation, transfer, harbouring or reception of persons, including the exchange or transfer of control over those 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.”
Understanding and applying this distinction is vital to ensure appropriate legal responses and effective protection for trafficked persons.
La Strada International also welcomes the G7’s endorsement of a “follow the money” approach, aimed at targeting and monitoring the financial gains of trafficking networks. This aligns closely with the objectives of the COMCRIM project, a major NWO-funded initiative in which LSI participates alongside our members FairWork and CoMensha, as well as a consortium of 28 academic, financial, private, and public institutions coordinated by the University of Amsterdam and Maastricht University, in collaboration with the Vrije Universiteit in Amsterdam (VU) and Erasmus University Rotterdam (EUR).
To combat and prevent human trafficking there is a need for a coordinated and transnational action that involves all – from people with lived experience, to national authorities, police services and civil society organisations.
Picture Copyright: Simon Dawson