Trafficking in human beings for sexual and other purposes - Polisen

Annex 1 – Reporting by the police authorities58Bulgaria to pick berries in Sweden. All of the victimstestified against the traffickers and then returned toBulgaria. In one of the cases, a man and a womanfrom Bulgaria were prosecuted for offences includinghuman trafficking, but the court dismissed the indictment.Instead, the man was convicted of attemptedassault, arbitrary conduct and molestation, and sentencedto imprisonment for three months. The womanwas sentenced by the District Court to imprisonmentfor three months for assault and arbitrary conduct93 . The victims in this case were three Bulgarianmen aged between 32 and 42.In another case, in June 2012, a Bulgarian man anda Bulgarian woman were each sentenced by the DistrictCourt in Hudiksvall to prison terms of 10months for human trafficking. The couple were alsosentenced to expulsion for 10 years 94 .In these cases, the police authority in the County ofGävleborg collaborated with the National Bureau ofInvestigation, the Bulgarian police, the InternationalPublic Prosecution Office in Stockholm and with theNorwegian police liaison officer in Sofia.County of VästmanlandIn 2010-2011, the police authority in Västmanlandconducted a project targeting human trafficking forsexual purposes and prostitution. During the projectperiod, the police authority arranged a number ofseminars for selected key people from public authorities,municipalities in the county and NGOs. Theseminars were also aimed at police employees withinthe authority. The purpose of the seminars was toraise awareness among interested parties and to forma network of professional bodies and a liaison group.The County Administrative Board of Västmanlandis the responsible authority for the liaison group combatinghuman trafficking. The group consists of rep-93 Hudiksvall District Court 31.10.2011, Case no. 1834-11.94 Hudiksvall District Court 15.06.2012, Case no. 2220-11.resentatives from social services, the police, theSwedish Migration Board, the Swedish ProsecutionAuthority, the Church of Sweden, women’s shelters,the Swedish Victim Support organisation and thecounty’s schools.The liaison group disseminated information abouthuman trafficking and prostitution through a campaignof specialist courses and several seminars. Thetarget group for these activities included people invarious business sectors such as hotels, restaurantsand taxi companies, to spread awareness of the problemsand encourage the general public and others totip off the police.A case of special interestIn 2011, the District Court in Västmanland dismissedthe indictment for human trafficking against threeperpetrators suspected of having recruited andexploited two women from Slovakia, since the districtcourt did not find any proof of exploitation havingtaken place.The case arose out of information from Interpoland Europol concerning the fact that women fromSlovakia were being exploited for prostitution purposesin Sweden. One woman had previously beenexploited for sexual purposes in Germany, but it wasnot possible to prove that the women had beenexploited for sexual purposes in Sweden. Telephonetapping showed that one of the women had been soldto one of the suspects, but it was unclear what theexploitation purpose was.The preliminary investigation led to three brothers,resident in Sweden but originally from Slovakia,being arrested by the police. The suspicions of humantrafficking concerned the exploitation of two Slovakwomen for sexual purposes, or that they had been putin a position of distress. The distress consisted of suspicionsthat the perpetrators would provide the womenwith Swedish personal identification numbers inorder to exploit them for financial crimes such ascredit fraud. There were also suspicions that the per-