Trafficking in human beings for sexual and other purposes - Polisen

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3. Criminal Development30sexual acts from children and where crimes areuncovered, are young teenagers. Despite this manyperpetrators still escape being sentenced for thiscrime. In many cases where perpetrators have beenprosecuted for the attempted or actual purchase ofsexual acts, they claim that they had no knowledge ofthe child’s actual age. In these situations, the courtsoften find that the accused’s objection concerning thechild’s age cannot be disproved, and convict theminstead for the purchase of sexual services, a crimewhich results in shorter sentences.The purchase of a sexual act from a child via theInternetIn 2011, because of its focus on the sexual abuse ofyoung girls and boys, the Stockholm police wereinvestigating several cases in which men contactedchildren through advertisements on the internet, andpurchased sexual acts from them or sexually exploitedchildren in other ways. Police also discovered casesin which perpetrators of sexual abuse had changedto act as pimps for young girls. In conjunction withthis initiative, the police also contacted people whoused on-line advertising to sell sexual services whenthere was a suspicion that they were minors. Thiswork was done in collaboration with social services inStockholm to ensure that the young people who hadbeen contacted through the initiative could be offeredprotection and support.3.3.3 Modus operandi: trafficking children with theintention of exploiting them to commit crimesFrom previous years, it has been known that certaincriminal gangs in countries such as Romania andBulgaria, specialise in trafficking children in order toexploit them for the purposes of theft and begging, orfor sexual exploitation through prostitution.Traffickers make contact with parents living in povertywith offers to buy or hire their children with theintention of exploiting them for the purposes of theft.These girls and boys, who are often aged 10-14, arenot allowed to attend school but are instead trainedat an early stage by the trafficker to shoplift or to pickpockets. To make detection more difficult, the perpetratorsacquire documents to show that they are actingas guardians with permission to travel abroadwith the child/children for a specific period. Often thetraffickers provide the children and themselves withseveral different identity documents, making it difficultfor police to identify and trace the crime, especiallybecause these itinerant groups move betweendifferent EU countries.The girls and boys are often taken out of their homecountries in groups resembling family units, consistingof two adults and two or three children. To makedetection more difficult, the perpetrators acquiredocuments to show that they are acting as guardianswith permission to travel abroad with the child/childrenfor a specific period. The groups travel by carbetween countries within the EU, where the childrenare exploited for begging and for committing variousproperty crimes.The police investigations conducted in 2011 showthat it was common for an adult to pretend to berelated to the child, or to be the child’s guardian to beable to fetch the child after being picked up by thepolice or social services. The children constitute animportant investment for the traffickers, who may useviolence to retrieve them from the authorities. Thechildren are socially isolated, deprived of access toeducation, and linked emotionally to the perpetrators.They are therefore extremely likely to run awaywhen they are placed in safe houses. In addition, thechildren frequently do not trust the authorities, especiallythe police, and often do not see themselves asvictims of a crime. This leads to time-consuming preliminaryinvestigations in which, until now, there hasbeen little chance of prosecuting the perpetrators.Four cases of particular interestBeginning in autumn 2010, the National Bureau ofInvestigation was collaborating with the police in the
3. Criminal Development31Hordaland police district in Norway in an extensivehuman trafficking case. The case concerned girlsaged 13-17 years, bought and sold by a number ofoffenders to be used for the purpose of committingfraud in the form of selling fake gold, committingtheft, begging, etc. The preliminary investigation alsoincluded information about forced marriages, rapes,assaults, etc. In July 2012, six people (three men andthree women) were sentenced by the Bergen DistrictCourt to imprisonment for between three and sixyears for human trafficking 42 . The perpetrators werealso convicted variously for other crimes, such asrape and complicity in rape and for forcing an underagegirl to “enter into marriage in accordance withthe traditions of the Roma people”. All of thoseinvolved, six perpetrators and four injured parties,originally came from Romania and the human traffickingcrimes were committed in Sweden, Norwayand Romania. One of the rapes was also committedin Sweden. The case was considered by the NationalBureau of Investigation to be of particular interest forraising awareness about children who are traffickedfor various purposes, and for ensuring that the perspectiveof the injured-party/child is taken into consideration.The crimes in this case were perpetrated by criminalgangs identified by Europol as one of the threegreatest threats to society in respect of human trafficking43 . The victims were children who wereexposed to several different types of crime. They werewithin an itinerant criminal gangs in which theexploitation was also a part of what might be regardedas serial crime. The case demonstrated a clearneed for increased knowledge and awareness amongSwedish authorities as regards human trafficking in42 Bergen District Court 05.07.2012, Case no 11-194827MED-BBYR/01.43 https://www.europol.europa.eu/sites/default/files/publications/trafficking-in-human-beings-in-the-european-union-2011.pdf.For more information on criminal human trafficking gangswithin the EU, see page 12 of this report.relation to serial crimes such as those involvingunder-age perpetrators, victims of human traffickingnevertheless.In November 2006, a Bulgarian girl, aged 12, wasarrested at a department store in Sollentuna afterhaving stolen a handbag. Since the girl was alonewhen the theft occurred, she was handed over to thesocial services. A man, who claimed to be the girl’s“uncle”, later contacted social services. He had thegirl’s passport with him and authorisation from herparents showing that they had given him permissionto take the girl to an unlimited number of countriesfor an unlimited time. The social services did nothand the girl over to the man, but requested insteadthat the legal guardian should come to fetch his daughter.Three days later, the father came from Bulgariatogether with the alleged uncle to fetch the girl. Thepolice investigation showed that the girl was suspectedof several thefts of handbags at various locationswithin Sweden and she had a recently issued passportthat had been stamped around seventy times. In thepolice interviews, the alleged uncle and the girl madestatements that failed to correspond. It was thereforesuspected that the girl was a victim of human traffickingand she was taken into care by social servicesunder the terms of the Act (1990:52) relating to theCare of Young Persons (Special Provisions). TheNational Bureau of Investigation initiated a preliminaryinvestigation into human trafficking.The girl was suspected of nine thefts of handbags indifferent food-stores in Sweden, and a further twothefts could be linked to the gang. In the summer of2007, the National Bureau of Investigation, togetherwith the Bulgarian police, tapped the phone of thegirl’s father in Bulgaria, during which it emerged thatit was the father who was organising the operation. Onthe journey through Sweden, an older daughter wasalso exploited for carrying out thefts. The perpetratorsearned up to SEK 20,000 per day and had a consciousstrategy of stealing from elderly women sincethey were less attentive and less likely to hit back.
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