On Friday 9 June, the Council of the European Union adopted its mandate revising the EU directive on combating trafficking in human beings (see EUROPE 13087/9), which will cover forced marriages and illegal adoptions.
EU countries must also ensure that people who knowingly use services provided by victims of human trafficking are liable to sanctions, explains a press release.
The text adopted specifies that Member States are required to criminalise trafficking in human beings for the purposes of forced marriage and illegal adoption.
On the use of services provided by victims of trafficking, the mandate obliges Member States to make it a criminal offence for a person to intentionally use a service provided by a victim of trafficking in the knowledge that that person is a victim of trafficking.
In such cases, Member States must ensure that the offence is punishable by effective, proportionate and dissuasive penalties. The investigation and prosecution of this offence by national law enforcement and judicial authorities should not be dependent on the statement or accusation of a victim, the mandate also stresses.
A legal person held liable may, in particular, be disqualified from receiving public benefits, aid or subsidies, or the temporary or permanent closure of the establishments used to commit the offence, according to the mandate.
The mandate also stipulates that Member States must take all necessary measures to comply with this directive no later than 2 years after the entry into force of the text, as opposed to1 year in the Commission’s proposal.
According to Commissioner for Home Affairs Ylva Johansson, around 7,000 people are trafficked into the EU each year, but “this is just the tip of the iceberg”, she said in December.
Most were women and children.
Link to mandate: https://aeur.eu/f/7eh (Original version in French by Solenn Paulic)