Trafficking in human beings for sexual and other purposes - Polisen

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3. Criminal Development22that “situations that entail distress as indicated by thepenalty clause concerning human trafficking arewhen a person is induced to work under particularlydifficult conditions at a very low wage. Anotherexample is when a person is induced to beg or steal. 27 ”In 2011 one person was convicted for human traffickingfor purposes other than sexual. That case concerneda man from Bulgaria who transported a12-year-old Bulgarian girl to Sweden to commit theftsin Sweden and in other countries in Europe. In somecases of other types of human trafficking, the proceedingsare dismissed because of a lack of evidenceshowing that the suspects, as early as at the time ofrecruitment, intended to mislead the victims or thatno exploitation could be proven. (See Annex 3).The police authorities’ reports to the SwedishNational Police Board during the year indicate thatthe number of reports, preliminary investigations initiatedand cases brought concerning other humantrafficking increased more than those concerninghuman trafficking for sexual purposes.In 2011 the police drew up 35 reports on humantrafficking for sexual purposes and 63 reports concerninghuman trafficking for purposes other thansexual. These purposes generally concerned situationsin which people had been brought to Sweden bycriminal gangs from other countries to be exploitedfor begging, for forced labour or for complicity incriminal activities such as organised theft. In 2010 thepolice drew up 32 reports on human trafficking forsexual purposes and 52 reports concerning humantrafficking for purposes other than sexual.3.2.1 Forced labour or situations that involve distressWithin several sectors in the Swedish labour market,foreign labour is being used to an increasing extent.Workers from countries outside the EU require awork permit and these people are often recruited with27 Gothenburg District Court Dept. 4, 30.01.2012, Case no.15416-11, p.23.the help of foreign manpower agencies. For workersfrom other EU countries, no such permit is required.Concurrent with increases in the foreign workforceon the Swedish labour market there has also been anincrease in the information provided to the policeconcerning factors such as poor working conditions,unreasonable terms of employment and wages, difficultiesin getting paid for work done, but also concerninghuman trafficking for forced labour.The concept of workforce exploitation is understoodto mean a situation that may involve hardlabour, long hours and low wages. Under Article 2 ofILO Convention No. 29, forced labour is defined as 28 :a) any work or serviceb) that is demanded from a person under threat ofsome kind of punishmentc) and to the performance of which the person concernedhas not willingly agreed.Human trafficking for the purposes of forced labourcan be difficult to prove because the people beingexploited do not always see themselves as victims –even in cases where the police and prosecutors suspectthese crimes have taken place. The victims areparticularly vulnerable when they are in a foreigncountry with a foreign culture and if they do not havea command of the language. However, it can be difficultto determine the extent to which a person mayhave been exploited and whether the exploitation isserious enough to be considered criminal under thetrafficking legislation. In addition, victims are usuallyable to move about freely but are deprived of theirliberty in more subtle ways, for example by threats ofreprisals or by being deprived of their passports orbeing indebted to the perpetrators. This makes it difficultto prove the power relationship that should existbetween the perpetrator and the victim.In 2011 the police received information that foreignemployees who had been promised work within the con-28 International Labour Organisation.
3. Criminal Development23struction industry, or the cleaning, hotel and restaurantsectors, within other service occupations such as snowclearing,car-washing and catering, had been informedthat working conditions had been changed in conjunctionwith their journey to or just after arrival in Sweden.The perpetrators thereby intentionally subjected theemployees, the injured-parties, to a situation in whichthey were forced to accept a significant deterioration inworking conditions or completely lose the opportunityto get work and an income. These cases were difficult toinvestigate since it was not clear whether it was a matterof human trafficking for forced labour, or whether theyshould be viewed as fraud or breach of contract. In caseswhere there were suspicions of human trafficking, thealleged perpetrators and the injured parties came fromChina, Hungary, Romania, Belarus and Latvia. Peoplefrom outside the EU, working illegally in Sweden forrogue Swedish employers, are under great pressure sincethe illegal stay could be disclosed to authorities if theemployees were to protest about poor conditions. (Formore information, see Section 3.2.3 on foreign berrypickers in Sweden p. 23).A case of special interestIn 2011, a preliminary investigation was initiated atthe police authority in Västmanland into human traffickingfor sexual purposes and fraud. The preliminaryinvestigation led to three brothers (resident inSweden but originally from Slovakia) being arrestedby the police. The suspicions of human traffickingconcerned the exploitation of two Slovak women forsexual purposes or that they had been put into a stateof distress. The distress was, according to the prosecutor,that the perpetrators provided the women witha Swedish personal identity number in order toexploit them for financial crimes. The perpetratorscommitted credit frauds in the victims’ names andintended also to use their identities in order to be ableto enjoy social security benefits for themselves andtheir children. In this case one perpetrator was sentencedto jail for six months for fraud.The proceedings concerning human traffickingagainst the three brothers were dismissed because theCourt found that there was insufficient evidence ofthere having been any exploitation of the victims 29 .3.2.2 Human trafficking for begging and criminalactivitiesAs with human trafficking for sexual purposes, it canbe difficult to assess the extent of human traffickingfor other purposes to, through and within Sweden.In 2011, information concerning suspected humantrafficking for other purposes in which people wereforced to come to Sweden by itinerant criminal gangsfrom other countries to commit crimes, primarilyconcerns victims and perpetrators from Central andEastern Europe (Romania, Bulgaria, the BalticStates, Poland and Slovakia). These groups movedthroughout the country and cases of organised beggingoccurred mostly in and around urban areas andalong main roads.The foreign criminal gangs responsible are wellorganised and systematic in carrying out their crimes,particularly as regards crimes of theft and fraud.Crime in 2011 was usually of a serial nature andinvolved several countries 30 . In order not to get caught,the perpetrators would convey victims across countyand country borders, and also often changed the vehiclesand people in the gangs. Information confirmedthat the number of individuals within these gangs,often minors, had been forced to commit crimes andthey could thus be victims of human trafficking.These gangs frequently consist of family constellationswith complex loyalties between perpetrator andvictim. The victims, who in some cases did not seethemselves as victims, thus rarely reported themselvesto have been victims of human trafficking.29 Västmanland District Court 25.08. 2011, Case no B 406-11.30 Crimes of a serial nature, such as housebreaking, shoplifting,theft and skimming. The crimes are often committed by organisedcriminal networks that move rapidly within a country andare often transnational.
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