Simulating a Multi-agency Approach for the Protection of Trafficked Persons in Migration and Displacement Settings

ABSTRACT

The wide-range of humanitarian crises ongoing today, lack of legal pathways to admission to territory and the evolving nature of migrant smuggling practice have contributed to an upsurge in irregular human displacement and mobility. People moving in what are oft termed “irregular mixed-migration flows” experience an array of well-documented protection challenges and rights violations, at times, amassing to trafficking in persons (This article will use the phrase ‘trafficking in persons’ as defined in Article 3 of the Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punish Trafficking in Persons, Especially Women and Children (2000) (Palermo Protocol) recognizing that the Council of Europe Convention on Action Against Trafficking in Human Beings (2005) (CoE Convention) refers to it as ‘trafficking in human beings’).

In an attempt to address the specific phenomenon of trafficking in persons as it affects individuals in situations of displacement or migration, the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) designed a training simulation exercise aimed at rapidly capacitating key stakeholders in applying relevant international legal and human rights standards through a multi-agency approach.

This article takes the simulation as its departure point and evaluates current empirical challenges and best practices for the protection of victims of trafficking found in mixed movements. It will also highlight the difficulties in ascertaining the immigration status of victims of trafficking in such settings and in aligning the approaches of law enforcement and non-governmental organizations (NGOs) in particular. The article concludes with a recommendation that the simulation continues to improve upon the learning part to this learning-by-doing exercise and considers how to better develop trainees’ capacities as agents of change, through the application of that learning once they return home.

KEYWORDS:

• Trafficking in persons
• mixed migration
• forced displacement
• international protection
• experiential learning
• simulation-based training
• counter-trafficking

Notes

¹ The views expressed in this article are those of the authors and not the United Nations.

² Irregular is used here to describe persons moving either without identity documentation or outside of regular legal admission pathways.

³ For the purpose of this study, mixed movements will be used to define the phenomenon described above.

⁴ This Handbook is currently under revision.

⁵ According to UNHCR, in 2018, the number of persons forcibly displaced exceeded 70 million.

⁶ Carabinieri are the national gendarmerie of Italy who primarily carry out domestic policing duties.

⁷ The British Red Cross and Refugees-Cosi Forum TRACKS project (“the identification of trafficked asylum-seekers special needs”) examined the relationship between asylum procedures and National Referral Mechanisms (NRMs) in seven countries in Europe between 2016 and 2018. Their comparative report and TRACKS toolkit is available here: https://www.redcross.org.uk/about-us/what-we-do/modern-slavery-and-trafficking.