Words are good at raising awareness. Legislation is also needed. Disrupting and reducing trafficking requires ACTIONS.
In the EU these actions need to be coordinated and cross-border.
1. Prevention (victims) = Disruption (traffickers and criminal activities)
- Focus on domestic as well as foreign victims.
- Intercept potential victims in source and transit countries before waiting for them to be exploited in the countries of destination. *
- Follow the money. *
- Involve partners outside of the Criminal Justice System.*
- Attempts are made to investigate and prosecute the entire “trafficking chain” from beginning to end.*
- International collaboration is sought with all partners who can play a role in preventing or inhibiting Human Trafficking.*
* Pan-European collaboration required.
2. A Barrier Model resembling the Dutch Barrier Model.
The Dutch Barrier Model attempts to influence all the factors which give rise to human trafficking and seem to support its continued existence. The Barrier Model aims at involving numerous stakeholders that are in a position to collaborate in constructing structural barriers so that it becomes more difficult for human beings to be trafficked into the Netherlands.
The Barrier Model identifies five stages at which point stakeholders can construct barriers to hinder Human Trafficking.
- Entrance (smuggling, border crossing)
- Housing (prostitution circuit, illegal housing)
- Identity (false documents, false social security numbers)
- Work (pimps, exploiters, violence, exploitation)
- Financial (money laundering)
The Barrier Model further identifies illegal service providers and illegal activities at each of the five stages. More importantly, strategic partners have been identified which may come into contact with victims or traffickers at each stage and which are in a position to erect barriers to hinder or prevent Human Trafficking.
Barriers can be erected at any of the five stages, but an integrated approach requires barriers to be erected at all five stages.
