Smuggling Conspiracies

"Immigration and Criminal Law in the European Union: the Legal Measures and Social Consequences of Criminal Law in Member States on Trafficking and Smuggling in Human Beings" published on 01 Jan 2006 by Brill | Nijhoff.

The paper reviews recent developments in the system of protection, assistance and support of victims of human trafficking in Serbia. The establishment of the Agency for Co-ordination of Protection of Victims of Trafficking in Human Beings in 2003, the issuing of the Instruction on Conditions for Obtaining Temporary Residence Permit for Foreign Citizens — Victims of Trafficking in Human Beings by the Minister of Interior in 2004, and the adoption of the Strategy to Combat Trafficking in Human Beings in the Republic of Serbia in 2006 are important steps forward. Notable improvement has been achieved in the protection of victims as injured parties/witnesses in criminal proceedings. However, despite the respectable efforts made so far, further improvements to the system and mechanisms of victim protection in Serbia are still needed, particularly in terms of developing support for and protection of child victims.

This report presents a comprehensive set of recommendations for protection of human beings who are trafficked for the purpose of organ removal or are targeted for such trafficking. Developed by an interdisciplinary group of international experts under the auspices of the project Trafficking in Human Beings for the Purpose of Organ Removal (also known as the HOTT project), these recommendations are grounded in the view that an individual who parts with an organ for money within an illegal scheme is ipso facto a victim and that the crime of trafficking in human beings for the purpose of organ removal (THBOR) intersects with the crime of trafficking in organs. Consequently, the protection of victims should be a priority for all actors involved in antitrafficking activities: those combating organ-related crimes, such as health organizations and survivor support services, and those combating trafficking in human beings, such as the criminal justice sectors. Taking into account the special characteristics of THBOR, the authors identify 5 key stakeholders in the protection of human beings trafficked for organ removal or targeted for such trafficking: states, law enforcement agencies and judiciary, nongovernmental organizations working in the areas of human rights and antitrafficking, transplant centers and health professionals involved in transplant medicine, and oversight bodies. For each stakeholder, the authors identify key areas of concern and concrete measures to identify and protect the victims of THBOR. The aim of the recommendations is to contribute to the development of a nonlegislative response to THBOR, to promote the exchange of knowledge and best practices in the area of victim protection, and to facilitate the development of a policy-driven action plan for the protection of THBOR victims in the European Union and worldwide.

Australia has witnessed an increase in human trafficking cases in recent years, most of which have involved women trafficked for sexual exploitation. In response, and within the framework of the United Nations Protocol to Prevent and Suppress Trafficking in Persons, especially Women and Children, Australia has introduced legislation to combat human trafficking and punish traffickers. However, the number of prosecutions of human trafficking offences in Australia has, to date, been low. Drawing on the available literature, this article sets out to explore the reasons for this, which the paper argues have largely centered on Australia’s previously restrictive visa framework for trafficking victims. The paper also explores other obstacles and barriers to successful prosecutions, such as issues associated with discrediting and attacking vulnerable witnesses, and lengthy and complex trials. The paper argues that Australia needs to increase its efforts to meet the obligations set out by the United Nations Recommended Principles and Guidelines on Human Rights and Human Trafficking, and to balance its priorities regarding prosecution and victim protection.

Purpose: Human trafficking is a transnational crime imposed on human beings, and for this reason, Indonesia has prohibited it and enforced criminal sanctions on human trafficking offenders. The objective of this research is to elaborate and analyze legal protection for human trafficking victims that is regulated in laws and regulations, including its problems. Theoretical reference: This legal research applies legal and regulatory approaches and a conceptual approach, and its legal material is analyzed through a normative method. Method: The legal material used is primary legal material in the form of laws and regulations, such as Human Trafficking Eradication Law, Witness and Victim Protection Law, Indonesian Migrant Worker Protection Law, and other laws as well as secondary material in the form of textual books, journal, reports, and others. The primary legal material was collected using the inventory and categorization methods. Results and Conclusion: The findings of this research show that Indonesia has regulated legal protection for human trafficking victims, be it preventive or repressive. The ratification of various laws and regulations, the imposition of sanctions, and the assignment to the government to prevent human trafficking were implemented as preventive legal protection. Meanwhile, repressive legal protection in the form of protection from the Witness and Victim Protection Agency (LPSK), restitution and rehabilitation, civil lawsuit filing, and repatriation by the state. Implications of research: The major and fundamental problem in providing legal protection for human trafficking victims is its regulation, in which a contradiction occurs between the Human Trafficking Eradication Law and the Witness and Victim Protection Law. Originality/value: The novelty of this research study is to provide better idea and understanding regarding regulatory alignment and synchronization are required so that human trafficking victims receive legal protection with legal certainty and justice.

The Perfect Business? Anti-trafficking and Sex Trade along Mekong SVERRE MOLLAND Honolulu: University of Hawai'i Press, 2012, viii+276 p.Transnational Crime and Human Rights: Responses to Human Trafficking in Greater Mekong Subregion SUSAN KNEEBONE and JULIE DEBELJAK Oxon: Routledge, 2012, xiii+276 p.Recently, as response to global crisis of human trafficking, more attention has been paid to human trafficking in Greater Mekong Subregion (GMS). However, literature of human trafficking mainly focuses on prostitution and irregular migration, and always considers maximization of profit as central logic behind human trafficking. But this is only part of story.Explaining social-cultural discourses of human trafficking in GMS, Sverre Molland, Susan Kneebone, and Julie Debeljak present alternative perspectives on human trafficking in GMS. In their opinions, there is tension between discourse of policy enforcement and human rights in region.Transnational Crime and Human Rights: Responses to Human Trafficking in Greater Mekong Subregion evaluates legal policy frameworks for responding to human trafficking in GMS. At international, national, and subnational levels, authors point out two essential contexts in human trafficking, namely, prostitution and labor migration. Meanwhile, they apply Foucault and Habermas' ideas about discourse to evaluate competing discourses have shaped policies and policy responses have respectively changed discourses.For instance, Kneebone and Debeljak adopt Foucault's concepts of bio-politics and governmentality1) to illustrate trafficking discourses at both global and regional level not only explaining the increased interests in 'securitization' by those who are in power, but also analyzing why some discourses that may unsettle status quo are excluded (Kneebone and Debeljak, p.24).In The Perfect Business? Anti-Trafficking and Sex Trade along Mekong, Sverre Molland comments on three discourses of traffickers, victims, and anti-traffickers in human trafficking along Thai-Lao border, with specific focus on border towns of Vientiane and Nong Kai. At same time, Molland interprets human trafficking along Thai-Lao border from three theoretical approaches. First, he utilizes discourse2) to explain that institutional practices do not only shape external world, but also respond to it. Second, he adopts practice theory to explain how individuals and groups employ range of strategies and maneuvers to archive certain ends, and internalize these very same ends (Molland, p. 14). And third, he introduces Jean-Paul Sartre's analysis of bad faith3) to explain deliberate ignorance in human trafficking.Molland carefully analyzes and income hierarchies within sex industries in Vientiane and Nong Kai, which are different from idealized depiction of human trafficking. He concludes that human trafficking is not parasitic on migration flows from poorer to richer areas. In many cases advanced by Molland, price for commercial sex in Laos is higher than that in Nong Kai (Molland, p. 127). Furthermore, Lao sex workers cross border to work in Nong Kai, who break logic of maximization of utility. Molland highlights fact that analytical models assumed by anti-traffickers do not explain movement of Lao sex workers mentioned above.In both books, authors pose serious challenges both analytically and methodologically to literature on human trafficking in following three areas.First of all, two books criticize effectiveness of definition context of human trafficking in GMS.In The Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punish Trafficking in Persons, Especially Women and Children (the Trafficking Protocol),4) one of most essential international texts to any study on human trafficking, definition context of human trafficking contains a range of contradictions and ambiguities (Molland, p. …

Human trafficking is an urgent contemporary human and labor rights issue. It is prevalent in a wide range of sectors, from the commercial sex sector to the construction industry to begging. Human trafficking also (increasingly) occurs in situations where the body is rendered ‘divisible,’ such as in cases of organ trafficking. The ratification of the United Nations Protocol on Human Trafficking (formally known as the Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punish Trafficking in Persons, Especially Women and Children) in December 2003 has led to a proliferation of legislative and policy responses by states, interventions by international and nongovernmental organizations, and scholarly and third-sector research on the subject. International organizations, such as the International Organization for Migration (IOM), have also become important players in the field of counter-trafficking, including through the publication of numerous guidelines and manuals, research publications, and other resources. With ‘human trafficking’ defined by the UN Protocol as involving the three linked elements of recruitment, movement, and exploitation, responses have centered on what are commonly labeled the ‘3 Ps’; prevention of trafficking, protection of victims, and prosecution of offenders. By nature a clandestine and illicit activity, human trafficking has proven both challenging to study and, as a transnational crime, difficult to investigate and prosecute. Research with victims and survivors is often not undertaken well because trafficked persons are viewed as a ‘hidden population’ and because of a range of ethical challenges. As a result, published research on human trafficking is often largely bereft of victims’ voices; is overly reliant on information provided primarily by key stakeholders; and exhibits a bias toward estimates, mapping the problem, and criminal justice responses. In 2022, almost twenty years after the Trafficking Protocol came into international force, critical scholarly work evaluating the achievements, shortcomings, and effects of the UN Protocol has produced a robust engagement not only with human trafficking as an important subject, but also with counter-trafficking responses as a corpus of knowledge and practice, with its own attendant institutional and political infrastructures. Geographical scholarship on the subject is, in large part, motivated by these concerns for critical and progressive engagements with the ways human trafficking and counter-trafficking responses impact the rights and dignity of victims. This focus has directed much scholarly engagement by both geographers and those in cognate disciplines, such as anthropology and gender studies, to interrelated modes of human exploitation through modern-day slavery, forced labor, and precarious work.

Trafficking in persons is regulated in Law Number 21 of 2007 concerning eradicating the Crime of Trafficking in Persons. One form of legal protection for victims is the provision of compensation in the form of restitution. Children and women were often victims of the crime of trafficking in persons. The problem how is the application of compensation in the form of restitution to children as victims of criminal acts of trafficking in persons in the jurisdiction of the city of Padang. What are the obstacles in the application of compensation in the form of restitution to children as victims of criminal acts of trafficking in persons in the jurisdiction of the city of Padang? The study uses an empirical legal. Data collection techniques are through interviews and document studies, and data analysis is qualitative. The conclusion is the application of restitution for children who are victims of criminal acts of trafficking in persons in the jurisdiction of the city of Padang has not been optimal. The obstacle in implementing restitution for children as victims of the crime of trafficking in persons is the lack of awareness of law enforcement officers on victim protection, especially restitution, which results in the rights of the victims of criminal acts being often neglected because they tend to be law enforcement are more focused on imposing criminal charges against perpetrators.

This study aims to determine the legal protection for victims of trafficking in persons in terms of human rights perspective. This research is based on the fact that there are still cases of trafficking in persons and the protection of victims is still not effective. Victims are entitled to protection according to human rights guidelines. The author conducted this research using a normative research method using a statutory approach related to the object under study and also using a conceptual approach. The data collection technique used is secondary data consisting of primary legal materials, namely legislation and secondary legal materials in the form of books, scientific papers and data obtained. This study explains that a person who is a victim of trafficking in persons is entitled to protection in accordance with the provisions of the legislation as well as the provision of compensation rights to victims of trafficking in persons according to the human rights inherent in him. And this study also discusses the role of the government and the community in an effort to provide protection for victims of trafficking in persons to uphold human rights.

United States is a self-appointed country which monitors the issue of human trafficking. In 2001, the U.S Department of State introduced the Trafficking in Persons (TIP) report as an effort to eradicate human trafficking. The country oversees 187 state governments on their progress in addressing human trafficking by collecting relevant information from the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, the consulates and embassies around the globe, the United Nations Children’s Fund, and media reports. In the period of 2012 until 2017, the TIP reports highlighted that the Malaysian government did not manage to protect the trafficking victims effectively. As a result, Malaysia is not included among the Tier 1 countries and it has to ensure strict compliance with Section 108 of the Trafficking Victims Protection Reauthorization Act. The protection of victims in Malaysia is entrusted to a number of stakeholders, namely five enforcement bodies led by the Royal Malaysian Police. This paper examined the protection provided to the human trafficking victims by these enforcement bodies. The findings revealed that the enforcement bodies comply with the guidelines and legal framework in Malaysia, despite the claim that they provide inadequate protection. As a recommendation, Malaysia may reflect on the efforts undertaken by the Australian government to protect victims in their country. This approach is anticipated to catapult Malaysia into the Tier 1 ranking in TIP by the year 2020.

Due to its high social danger and far-reaching consequences, trafficking in human beings, as a form of transnational crime, needs an all-inclusive international approach in countries of origin, transit and destination. That means the use of effective measures concerning prevention, punishment of perpetrators and protection of victims. In connection with that, intensive efforts of the international community in stamping out this phenomenon marked the end of 20? century. They are incarnated in a numerous of international documents and other activities, which particular emphasize the need of criminalization of trafficking in human beings in national legislation. In the paper, authors are analyzing international documents that are both directly or indirectly dealing with this topic, as well as criminal law provisions of a number of countries (USA, Western Europe, Central and Eastern Europe, Southern Europe). The aim of such an approach is to perceive our legislation though the prism of the contemporary tendencies, as well as to point out certain shortages and the importance of harmonizing our legislature with the international standards and demands of the international community. The first step toward that should be inclusion of trafficking in human beings as a separate criminal offence in the Criminal Code of Federal Republic of Yugoslavia. Victimology Society of Serbia drafted such criminal law provision, which is presented in this paper.

Although a human rights based approach to trafficking in human beings is often proclaimed in words, states seem to be reluctant to really implement such an approach. This article provides the necessary steps to put this approach into practice. One of the steps is the introduction of a Victim Assistance and Protection Package (VAPP), based on existing mechanisms for victim protection at the international, European, and national levels. A VAPP should apply to all victims of trafficking in human beings (THB) regardless of whether they cooperate with the authorities or not. The article furthermore considers the contribution of the criminalisation of those who intentionally make use of the services of victims of THB to a human rights based approach. This is suggested by Article 19 of the Convention on Action against Trafficking in Human Beings from the Council of Europe. In this regard the Swedish and the Dutch policy regarding prostitution are compared. The state obligations based on the international human rights documents are analysed in order to complete the picture of a human rights based approach to THB.

Trafficking in persons is a cross-border crime which injures human dignity. The mode of trafficking in persons is to take advantage of the economic conditions of potential victims by luring them a better job. This research will discuss the profile of victims of trafficking in persons, gender analysis in human trafficking, and international policies in victim protection that are gender equality oriented. This research is a normative juridical study examining the analysis of international legal instruments, laws and court decisions. The research was conducted using the statute approach, legal concepts and the concept of gender. The victims of trafficking in persons are dominated by women, although it does not rule out the possibility that men can also be the victims. Women are considered as commodities that can provide benefits because they can be bought and sold to do work without requiring high education, and even provide sexual services. The perpetrators of the criminal network carry out the recruitment of potential victims by involving the householder of the potential victim, in this case the husband or father of the potential victim. This condition cannot be separated from the deep rooted patriarchal culture in the society, in which the men play a role as the decision makers in the family. Power relations play an important role in analyzing this crime of trafficking in persons. Efforts to combat trafficking in persons are carried out within the framework of a gender-equitable policy. However, the existing legal instruments have not addressed the fundamental problems of trafficking in women. Reconstruction of the legal culture of society is very important in protecting women from various forms of violence.

Action against human trafficking needs a diverse and multilayer approach. It should include not only criminal justice response to the offence of trafficking in human beings and its forms but also protection, assistance and other essential rights of victims. For this purpose, states are anticipated to establish necessary institutions and mechanisms, which should ensure a human rights-based approach to the victims of the trafficking in human beings. In the architecture of action against trafficking in human beings, independent monitoring has a key role. It contributes to prevention, intervention, policy development, international collaboration, and overall improvement in the protection of human rights in the field. Those mechanisms have a significant role in supporting the policymakers and governmental institutions to develop and implement strategic documents, contributing to the identification of cases of human trafficking and communicating them with law enforcement, and collaborating and exchanging information with international organisations, particularly monitoring mechanisms. Furthermore, it can potentially serve as a bridge between civil society and the state, highlighting the role of civil society in supporting victims. Lastly, the national monitoring mechanisms in action against the trafficking in human beings can also be engaged in raising awareness among the general public, presenting the issue in an accessible manner. The current article seeks to reveal why is it important to have national monitoring mechanisms for action against the trafficking in human beings, its mandate and different models, the synergy of the operation of national and international monitoring mechanisms of the field, cooperation with stakeholders, as well as the international standards and best practices based on the country-specific examples.

Extensive developments and changes in the economic, political, social, cultural and scientific fields have undoubtedly brought problems and disturbing phenomena in many parts of the world, such as the trafficking and exploitation of human beings. Every year many women, girls and children are illegally transported across the borders of their countries of origin, sold or bought, bringing to mind all the primitive ways of human slavery, seen in stark contrast to the galloping development that society has taken today, as well as aspirations for a worldwide civilization and citizenship. Regarding Albania, the beginning of trafficking in human beings dates in 1995 (Annual Analysis of 2003 of the State Social Service, Tirana), where the country found itself in a situation of instability of political, economic, social and cultural changes, as well as in a transitional geographical position to was used by traffickers, mostly Albanians, as an “open door” for the recruitment, transportation and sale of women, girls and children from Moldova, Russia, Romania, Turkey, Albania, China, etc. Albania is identified as a source and transit country for trafficked women and children. In addition, many NGOs and international organizations report significant increase cases in the trafficking of human beings. In 1999, official sources reported that young women and girls had been lured or abducted from refugee camps in Albania during the Kosovo crisis and then sold for prostitution in Italy and the United Kingdom. Reports from Italy, Germany, Belgium and the UK suggest that Albanian women and girls, which are trafficked for prostitution mostly are from rural areas (Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe Review Conference, September 1999). It is almost common to talk about the phenomenon of trafficking in human beings, about the motivating and attractive factors, the consequences associated with this phenomenon of Albanian society. Given the extent of the trafficking phenomenon during the last 30 years transition period in Albania, the Government has made different legislative and institutional efforts, through a strategic approach to combat and mitigate this phenomenon. However, the elements of identification, protection, reintegration and long-term rehabilitation for victims of trafficking remain issues of concern and still not properly addressed, in the context of the institutional fight against trafficking in persons, which should have as its primary goal the protection of the human rights for victims of trafficking and not their further violation or re-victimization (Annual Report of the European Commission, 2007).