Exec­u­tive summary

Cross-bor­der cas­es of traf­fick­ing in human beings (THB) are com­plex and dif­fi­cult to inves­ti­gate and pros­e­cute. They reveal the promi­nent role of organ­ised crim­i­nal groups. When gaps in judi­cial coop­er­a­tion appear it is the vic­tims of THB who suf­fer. In Octo­ber 2020, the Euro­pean Com­mis­sion not­ed in its progress report on THB that judi­cial author­i­ties in the Mem­ber States had raised seri­ous con­cerns about dif­fi­cul­ties in judi­cial coop­er­a­tion. This report was pre­pared by the Euro­pean Union Agency for Crim­i­nal Jus­tice Coop­er­a­tion (Euro­just), with the aim of respond­ing to these con­cerns. It presents solu­tions used by the agency when assist­ing in com­plex THB cas­es requir­ing judi­cial coor­di­na­tion. The report also aims to inform the forth­com­ing EU strat­e­gy against THB. It express­es Eurojust’s readi­ness to play a cen­tral role in the future strat­e­gy, by bring­ing sub­stan­tial added val­ue to the oper­a­tional dimen­sion of com­bat­ing THB. The final aim of the report is to assist in suc­cess­ful­ly bring­ing human traf­fick­ers to jus­tice, while pro­tect­ing the vic­tims. The report is divid­ed into two main parts. The first part relates to the coor­di­na­tion of inves­ti­ga­tions and the sec­ond to vic­tims’ rights.

The report draws on the prac­ti­cal expe­ri­ence gained from Eurojust’s sup­port of human traf­fick­ing inves­ti­ga­tions between 2017 and 2020. In total, 91 cas­es of THB were select­ed for analy­sis by Eurojust’s anti-traf­fick­ing team, of which 31 are illus­trat­ed in this report. Each case high­lights the diverse legal and prac­ti­cal prob­lems faced and pro­vides exam­ples of good prac­tice, fol­lowed by tar­get­ed rec­om­men­da­tions. In total, 18 rec­om­men­da­tions are made, which sup­ple­ment the rec­om­men­da­tions pro­vid­ed in pre­vi­ous Euro­just reports on THB. These rec­om­men­da­tions are main­ly aimed at pros­e­cu­tors, judges and law enforce­ment authorities.

1. There should be ear­ly coop­er­a­tion and coor­di­na­tion between all coun­tries and all actors involved, as part of the oblig­a­tion to respect the rights of all vic­tims of human trafficking.

2. Before bring­ing a THB case to Euro­just, infor­ma­tion should first be exchanged at the police lev­el and data cross-checked against the Euro­pean Union Agency for Law Enforce­ment Cooperation’s (Europol) data­bas­es. This helps to iden­ti­fy links with oth­er coun­tries, ini­ti­ate crim­i­nal pro­ceed­ings in those coun­tries, and iden­ti­fy sus­pects, vic­tims and their loca­tions, before deal­ing with judi­cial coop­er­a­tion issues.

3. When­ev­er nation­al author­i­ties share rel­e­vant infor­ma­tion with Europol, the sup­port from Europol should go hand in hand with the involve­ment of Euro­just; in some cas­es, Euro­just may even facil­i­tate the first exchange with Europol, depend­ing on the nation­al law enforce­ment sys­tem involved. As soon as Europol receives infor­ma­tion on a THB case, Euro­just can help to ini­ti­ate judi­cial pro­ceed­ings, which rep­re­sent the best ‘umbrel­la’ from a legal point of view under which to also begin vic­tim pro­tec­tion procedures.

4. Cross-bor­der THB inves­ti­ga­tions should be brought to Euro­just to iden­ti­fy whether par­al­lel crim­i­nal pro­ceed­ings are tak­ing place in oth­er coun­tries in the EU and beyond. Euro­just can pro­vide assis­tance with the coor­di­na­tion of such pro­ceed­ings or the pro­ceed­ings can be trig­gered with Eurojust’s support.

5. Once an active crim­i­nal group is dis­cov­ered, all coun­tries involved should react and com­mit to active­ly con­tribut­ing to evi­dence gath­er­ing and the dis­man­tling of the group, prefer­ably by con­duct­ing inves­ti­ga­tions in each juris­dic­tion to iden­ti­fy the crim­i­nal facts com­mit­ted in each coun­try. If coop­er­a­tion is lim­it­ed to the issu­ing of Euro­pean Inves­ti­ga­tion Orders (EIOs), there is a risk of los­ing track of the per­pe­tra­tors and them escap­ing justice.