Trafficking in human beings for sexual and other purposes - Polisen

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3. Criminal Development14but the purchase of sexual services is a criminaloffence. This means in practice that a crime has to becommitted under Swedish law to enable a personengaged in prostitution to support themselves.The Migration Court agreed with the woman andstated that in her case it did not comply with theEuropean Community Directive on freedom ofmovement to deport her, pursuant to Chapter 8 § 2,paragraph 1, 2 of the Aliens Act 10 . From Article 27.2of the Free Movement Directive, it is clear that if aperson is to be deported, that person’s behaviourmust constitute a “genuine, present and sufficientlyserious threat affecting one of the fundamental interestsof society” 11 . The Migration Court found that thewoman had not committed any criminal acts. Herpersonal behaviour did not constitute a threat pursuantto the Free Movement Directive.In a case concerning a report to the Ombudsmanfor Justice from the Prostitution Team in the City ofGothenburg to the police authority in Västra Götalandon 7 September 2011, the assessment of theOmbudsman for Justice differed from that of theMigration Court 12 . The Ombudsman for Justiceannounced its decision that: “Based on current preliminarystatements, prostitution is to be regarded asa dishonest means of support according to the law.Prostitution - which can not occur without a crimehaving been committed - may also be considered as aprohibited occurrence in one principal element.Unlike the judgement in a previous determination bythe Ombudsman for Justice, which related to begging,deportation in this case is considered to be compatiblewith the Aliens Act.According to the EU Free Movement Directive thewoman had a right in principle to reside in the country.However, the rights of the individual may be10 Administrative Court in Gothenburg, Migration Court Dept.1, 08.04.2011, Case no. UM 832-11.11 Free Movement Directive 2004/38/EC12 Parliamentary Ombudsmen - Ombudsman for Justice, Registrationnumber: 4468-2011, 01.11.2012.rescinded in the event of any threat to public order,security or health. In this context, the Directiveallows for interpretation. The decision includes anassessment that in this case there was nothing to preventdeportation and that, at all events, the legal positionis not sufficiently clear for the police to be criticisedfor having made an incorrect decision.”3.1.1 Profiles: perpetrators, organisednetworksThe criminal gangs responsible for human traffickingcrimes detected in Sweden in 2011 were on a smallerscale but were, in many cases, assumed to belong tolarger organised networks in the victims’ countries oforigin. Those gangs, which comprised mainly men,were from several countries with a variety of ethnicbackgrounds and were usually linked to organisedcrime or included in family-like constellations. Someof the women involved had themselves been exploitedfor the purposes of prostitution and were laterrecruited as intermediaries by those responsible withinthe criminal network. In 2011, preliminary investigationsand sentences show that the people who wereinvolved in human trafficking, in certain cases, alsodevoted themselves to other criminality such asextortion and fraud.The persons responsible for the activities investigatedin 2011 were men and women originally fromEstonia, Iraq, Lithuania, Romania, Slovakia, Swedenand Poland.On the whole, all of those who have been prosecutedor sentenced for human trafficking for sexual purposes,or for crimes similar to human trafficking suchas procuring/aggravated procuring in 2011, had linksto the countries of origin of the victims or to countriesin which these people were resident. This meantthat the perpetrators had knowledge of the victims’living conditions and of economic and social conditionsin their country of origin. This knowledge wasthen utilised by the perpetrators for recruiting andcontrolling the women. Some of the perpetrators had
3. Criminal Development15stayed in Sweden for varying periods, or were domiciledin the country. They had a command of Swedish,and sometimes also English, and had a goodknowledge of Swedish society.Europol reportAccording to the official Europol situation report onhuman trafficking from 2011, the human traffickinggangs uncovered in other parts of Europe, are usuallyon a smaller scale 13 . These gangs either act independentlyor collaborate with other criminal groups.Some criminal groups, especially those that are Albanian,Nigerian and Roma, are family- or clan-basedwith complex loyalties connecting the perpetrators.This is often very challenging for the police when itcomes to getting information about or from thosepersons. The situation is similar in Sweden, wherepeople of Roma descent appear both as victims andperpetrators in relation to all forms of human trafficking.Nigerian human trafficking networks havealso been trying to establish themselves in Sweden,but not to the same extent as in many other countriesin Europe.3.1.2 Victims of human trafficking forsexual purposesAccording to the latest report on human traffickingby the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime(UNODC), 79% of global human trafficking is forsexual purposes. The report indicates that the majorityof these victims of human trafficking are girls andwomen 14 .In its latest report on organised crime from 2010,The Globalization of Crime – A TransnationalThreat Assessment, UNODC also reports that morethan 140,000 victims of human trafficking for sexual13 “Trafficking in Human Beings in the European Union,” Europol2011.14 “Global Report on Trafficking in Human Beings”, UNODC,2009.purposes are exploited every day in Europe. On anannual basis, almost 70,000 new victims are drawninto this trade in Europe and, according to the report,there are no signs of any reduction in the number ofvictims 15 .The fact that, globally, the majority of the victimsof human trafficking for sexual purposes are girls andwomen is also reflected in the Swedish statistics. Since1999, all known victims of human trafficking for sexualpurposes, or procuring/aggravated procuringhave been girls and women between the ages of 13and 45. In cases where men or boys have been victimsof human trafficking in Sweden, it has been for purposesother than sexual, such as theft, begging andforced labour.In 2011, the majority of foreign girls and womenwho were subject to human trafficking and crimerelated to that in Sweden, belonged to minoritygroups in their homeland, often had difficulties gainingemployment or came from a home environment inwhich circumstances had been bad, involving assault,sexual abuse and social exclusion. Many peoplelacked any awareness of how Swedish society functionsor of any opportunities for seeking help andprotection from the police, social authorities andNGOs. None of the women and girls understood orspoke Swedish, and only a few had any command ofEnglish.Different experiences and studies in Sweden andinternationally show that victims of human traffickingfor sexual purposes frequently do not trust thepublic authorities and are unwilling to be interviewedby the police, or to testify against theirattackers. They may also not trust the available interpreterssince they may come from the same backgroundas the victim or come from the same location,ethnic group or country. This means that the victimmay feel uneasy about her/his personal safety, and15 “The Globalization of Crime - A Transnational Threat Assessment”,UNODC, 2010.
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Annex 4 - Reported offences in 2011
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