Development of Human Trafficking Policy

1
Development of Human Trafficking Policy
2
Introduction

• Human trafficking has become an exponentially
  growing topic for the EU within the past decade.
• The paper attempts to show the formulation,
  interpretation and enforcement of policies, with
  specific reference to Italy and the official EU
  policies.
• Sample countries for analysis are Nigeria
  (country of origin) and Italy (country of
  destination).

3
Definition of Trafficking

• According to the US Department of State,
  Trafficking is the recruitment, harboring,
  transporting, providing or obtaining, by any
  means, any person for labor or services involving
  forced labor, slavery or servitude in any
  industry, such as forced or coerced participation
  in agriculture, forced prostitution,
  manufacturing, or other industries or in domestic
  service or marriage.

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Trafficking

• Trafficking is the fastest-growing business of
  organized crime which over the past decade has
  reached epidemic proportions
• Trafficking is possible because of the economic
  disparity, high unemployment and disruption of
  traditional lifestyle in many countries
• Traffickers face few risks and can earn huge
  profits by taking advantage of large number of
  potential immigrants.

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Trafficking (cont.)

• Trafficking poses problem for not only countries
  of origin but also countries of destination.
• Therefore, it is important to have common
  policies and legislation beyond national borders.
• Italy is a key example of a country battling to
  have efficient legislation internally as well as
  battling for common regulation and legislation
  within all of EU countries.

6
Countries of Origin

• Nigeria is used as a sample for analysis because
  of the high volume of women and children
  illegally transited from this country to others
  without passport or visas.

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Nigeria

• Country is split with two different codes of
  criminal law the Criminal Code applying to the
  Southern States and the Penal Code to the
  Northern States.
• The human trafficking is equated to prostitution
  
• Most trafficked women come from the south where
  most states have made prostitution a crime, no
  matter what the circumstances.
• When trafficked women are sent back to Nigeria,
  the Nigerian Immigration Service (NIS) is
  notified only about their illegal status abroad.
  Thereby, they fall into criminal categories.

8
Nigeria (cont.)

• The lack of human trafficking legislation, poor
  investigation, and general unwillingness of those
  trafficked to testify against their trackers all
  lead to the lack of prosecution and conviction of
  traffickers.
• Other factors
• The law enforcement officials lack training in
  the trafficking area
• There is lack of coherency and unity among
  countries of destination and Nigeria with poor
  information sharing
• The corruption of the Nigerian government police.

9
Countries of Destination

• Italy is used as a sample for analysis because of
  its location as a peninsula in the Mediterranean
  which makes it serve as a point of destination
  (and dispersion) of human trafficking.

10
Italy

• Has no uniform and specific criminal provision
  against human trafficking, but allows for
  trafficking to be prosecuted under several
  articles of its Penal Code.
• Without relevant legislation, Italy defines human
  trafficking succinctly and has many organizations
  which work together.

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Italy (cont.)

• There is much legislation which is not directly
  an anti-trafficking but can be used to prosecute
  traffickers
• Articles 600 and 601 of the Penal Code
• The Merlin Law, which can be used to prosecute
  traffickers as third parties to prostitution and
  brothels
• Article 18 of the Italian Immigration Law which
  provides temporary residence to trafficked
  persons.
• In addition there are many organizations and much
  legislation which deal with victims rights.

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Italy (cont.)

• There is contradictory information as to whether
  or not the Italian government, through
  legislation and enforcement, recognizes the
  dynamic and multi-agent structure of human
  trafficking
• Because application of legislation to human
  trafficking cases is relatively new, there are
  contradictions between immigration laws
  affecting undocumented migrantsand those
  affecting trafficked persons(which) prevents
  many trafficked persons from being able to access
  the Article 18 permit.

13
Italy (cont.)

• Because of the pressure from many fronts, the
  human trafficking policy is currently at the
  forefront of Italian politics.
• The Italian government has been under pressure to
  set up stricter regulations for boarder control
  and to combat illegal immigration as a whole.

14
European Union

• In 1996, the European Commission developed a
  common policy against the trafficking of women
  for sexual exploitation.
• EU focus has been on visa policy, cooperation and
  coordination of information exchange among EU
  member states, boarder management, police
  cooperation, criminal law against illegal aliens,
  and return and readmission policy.

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European Union (cont.)

• Major action regarding EU legislation was covered
  in the December 21, 2000 edition of the
  Commission of the European Communities.
• This document proposed a Council Framework
  Decision on tackling human trafficking as well as
  combating the sexual exploitation of children.
• Further, the EC reached agreement upon a
  framework decision countering human trafficking
  in July 2002.

16
European Union (cont.)

• On October 16-17, 2003, EC made many
  recommendations to manage a common and cohesive
  border patrol, to regulate migratory flows, and
  to have consistent police and judicial
  cooperation throughout the EU the Presidency
  Conclusions
• It happened under the Italian presidency of the
  EU.
• Several key points in the Presidency
  Conclusions serve to reinforce the Berlusconis
  openly stated policy towards a united European
  boarder patrol and common legislation against
  human trafficking in the EU.

17
European Union (cont.)

• The EU has several organizations to help efforts
  to unify cooperation of the different judicial
  and policing agencies in EU countries
• Two of these organizations are Eurojust (to
  increase effective communication and information
  sharing) and Europol (EU criminal intelligence
  agency).
• The EUs current and evolving human trafficking
  policies are rooted in UN policies, helping to
  develop policy implementation reflective of the
  theoretical framework.

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Relevant Policy Frameworks

• There is no simple framework to adequately define
  the official policy developments in Italy and EU
• The Stages Heuristic may be applied to how Italy
  has managed to define and implement its
  legislation
• Italys term at the EU Presidency can be analyzed
  with the institutional Rational Choice model and
• The Policy Diffusion Framework can be applied to
  legislation implementation within the EU.

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Future Policy Implications

• Broadening and more intensive defining of the
  human trafficking problem in the EU by creating
  many different interacting committees,
  governmental and non-governmental organizations
• Such an expansion in the roles of organization
  created to deal with human trafficking as to
  encompass other undefined roles.