I will be focusing on human trafficking in the European Union and how governmental policies on immigration play a role in contributing to migrants being targeted for trafficking. The article that I am focusing on for this post is called “Identifying Victims of Human Trafficking at Hotspots by Focusing on People Smuggled to Europe.” The primary focus of this article is fairly evident in the title but more specifically, the focus is on the creation of migrant hotspots in Europe and the policies implemented at these spots which influence the trafficking of those being smuggled into the EU.
Immigrants coming into the EU come primarily from the Middle East and Africa but more important to my point, majority of them come by sea. For this reason, hotspots were set up in Greece and Italy to intercept migrants being smuggled in. Most of these immigrants (90%) come through the facilitation of smuggler’s networks which continuously become stronger. This migration crisis has resulted in exploitation by traffickers resulting in over 60% of unaccompanied children going missing during migration, often resulting in trafficking. There are three ways in which a migrant can become victim to human trafficking during their journey. First, ties with the smuggler do not end when they reach the destination, rather they are obliged to repay the debt through trafficking. The migrant can also fall into trafficking during their journey and are forced into sexual exploitation, forced labor, or drug smuggling. The final way that the migrants can fall victim to trafficking is by accepting employment which ultimately leads to their enslavement. Hotspots were created in order to combat a lack of information on migrants once they reach their destination. The spots chosen were those that experienced higher influxes of migrants with the goal of fingerprinting, screening, and identification. The primary focus of the EU is on security through military means. The High Representative Vice President Federica Mogherini asserted that the immigration and refugee influx was a crisis that needed to be addressed through the cooperation between Member States. As of September 2015, provisional decisions were established which made it so that only asylum seekers with 75% or more of the asylum recognition rate could be relocated. Those that did not qualify are at risk of being returned to their countries of origin regardless of their possible fate of being trafficked. One of the main concerns of the author is the screening resulting in the divide between ‘good’ refugees and ‘bad’ economic migrants forcing the migrants sent home into unsafe conditions. Without specific services for victims of human trafficking, reporting is low. Many of these issues are due to the hotspots lack of focus on identifying victims and providing support. They are also a result of a negative public opinion and stakeholders working in the area, making an emphasis on the migrants being criminals, rather than victims. Their argument comes from their belief that consent to be smuggled into the EU results in their misfortune of becoming trafficked, therefore it is their fault.
The article goes on to provide more specific policies that both contribute to helping migrants as well as those that have had the opposite affect. The authors biggest concern is that as the EU makes it more difficult for immigrants to come, the more vulnerable the migrants will be as they succumb to riskier methods of immigration, ultimately increasing their chances of being trafficked. It is vital that the hotspots take a special interest in migrants being more carefully examined in order to identify the traffickers and those who are being trafficked.
https://www.cogitatiopress.com/socialinclusion/article/view/896/896
Taylor Hilliard