NMF - Azyl i Migracja (EN)
Integration for safety – international cooperation in the field of fundamental rights
Project subject – the subject of the project involves the process of strenghtering law enforcment cooperation to detect and counteract human trafficking, illegal migration and gender based violance and increasing support for human trafficking victims and for those who seek asylum.
Primary objective: the primary objective is to improve the abillity of law enforcment agencies to counteract and detect human trafficking, illegal migration and gender based violance and to increase support for human trafficking victims and those who seek asylum (especially unaccompanied minors).
The project also aims to encourage voluntary returns. The next element is to develop a new standard for preventing, combating and detecting human trafficking crimes and illegal migration, as well as support to victims of human trafficking and asylum seekers, based on modern technologies and international cooperation with units participating in project implementation, and increasing public awareness.
Detailed objectives:
- Providing law enforcement officials, with access to training, in order to increase their competencies in combating and detecting human trafficking, illegal migration and gender-based violence, providing officers and employees, who have direct contact with migrants with training and workshops in relation to voluntary returns.
- Providing training to officers in the field of psychological support for victims of human trafficking and asylum seekers (including in particular unaccompanied minors).
- Increasing the number of new technologies needed for training, applied in order to increase the effectiveness of monitoring and control of high-risk routes and areas.
- Exchange of experiences of services and entities involved in the implementation of the project, in order to develop joint procedures for counteracting human trafficking, migration and gender-based violence.
- Increasing public awareness, as an effective form of counteracting human trafficking and gender-based violence.
Migration and asylum
Migration and asylum are multi-threaded stacking elements. Asylum is a process of giving shelter to people fleeing from persecution or serious harm. It’s a fundamental law (granting asylum is an international obligation under Geneva Convention) - related to the status of refuges.
The characteristic feature of legal migration is the entry and stay of a foreigner into the territory of the country in a legal manner, based of documents necessary to legalize the stay. The conditions of entry and stay of a foreigner are strictly defined by law. Due to this, this type of migration covers issues related to the legalization of stay, economic migration, as well as points related to integration.
As far as illegal migration is concerned, this phenomenon is difficult to estimate and impossible to control to the full extent. It poses a threat to the security of citizens, as it is related to organized crime, terrorism and human trafficking. It also affects asylum procedures, also used illegally by foreigners, which will be explained below.
Foreigners use a variety of methods to achieve the goal of staying in an country: illegal use of legal migration channels (e.g. related to work or education, in order to obtain employment on the basis of a student / researcher residence permit), fictitious marriages, use of false documents.
Poland is a transit country for illegal migration - its geographic location makes the country run through the main migration routes in the region of Central and Eastern Europe. According to the data of the Office for Foreigners, the vast majority of people, i.e. Chechens, Georgians, Armenians, Syrians, apply for asylum when crossing the Polish border. However, on the same day they go to the countries of the Schengen area (mainly Germany and France). They also often use transport organized by smugglers. It should be noted, that in such cases, the initiation of the asylum procedure in the country is not the real goal of the refugee / emigrant, but is used illegally, as a mean of allowing the border crossing and reaching the area of the Schengen area. It also poses a potential threat to the migrants themselves, e.g. victimization in the practice of human trafficking. Unaccompanied minors constitute a particularly vulnerable group in this respect. While traveling along the migration routes, they are particularly exposed to violence, abuse and use. Due to their vulnerability, they require special help and support.
Counteracting irregular migration is an important element of migration management at the national level and is one of the priorities of the European Union. Poland has one of the longest external borders of the EU, which entails priority in terms of systemic, practical solutions, knowledge and information exchange between EU countries.
In this context, it is extremely important to encourage voluntary returns by implementing measures in this area, i.e. identification of people willing to return to the country voluntarily; encouraging/promoting voluntary returns; psychological and organizational (administrative) support in the implementation of the voluntary return plan.
It is observed that the COVID-19 pandemic caused, on the one hand, a change in the behavior of organized crime groups dealing with people smuggling, and on the other hand, it created areas of potential risks that could lead to an increase in illegal migration and human trafficking in the near future. They include:
- change of transit routes from air to land and sea
- closing facilities by offering legal sex work in the EU, may increase the incidence of illegal exploitation
- Travel restrictions can complicate seasonal agricultural work and increase the labor demand of migrants.
In the year 2019 in Poland, 24 asylum applications were submitted. Particular attention should be paid to unaccompanied minors among asylum seekers. They constitute a group that is particularly exposed to violence, abuse and victimization. The UNODC statistics (see United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, "Global report on trafficking in person" 2018) show that minors constitute in 1/3 of the total number of victims. There are four girls and one boy for every five child victims of human trafficking .
Due to this, in order to effectively prevent and increase support for victims, especially for minors, the competences of officers and employees should be increased, as well as social awareness of the practice, should be raised.
Human trafficking:
Human trafficking is a complex phenomenon that contains economic, social, cultural and other factors. It is a crime, that seriously violates human dignity and fundamental human rights. The essence of the practice is to abuse people, even with their consent, by the use of illegal means and methods.
Human trafficking is a global phenomenon with high dynamics and is strongly related to migration. Currently, Poland is a country of origin (i.e. Poles used in other EU countries), a transit country (mainly for victims from Eastern Europe and Asia to Western European countries) and a destination country (mainly from Eastern Europe and Asia) for victims of the practice, as illustrated in the map below:
Legend: yellow: transit of victims; maroon color: target point of victims; blue color - the origin of the victims.
Source:
Dealings can take many forms and have different goals - sexual abuse, forced labor, extortion of benefits, forced begging or crime.
In terms of forced labor, the phenomenon of human trafficking is observed, especially in such sectors as agriculture, fruit picking, gastronomy, cleaning services, and construction.
Due to its location, good economic situation and wide development opportunities, Poland is an attractive place for people who want to work, from countries such as Ukraine, Belarus, Romania, Bulgaria, Vietnam, Nepal, Sri Lanka. According to the data of the Criminal Department of the Regional Police Headquarters in Szczecin, Asian countries, Ukraine and Bulgaria are the main places of recruitment for forced labor.
In the year 2019 the Police and Border Guard identified 162 potential victims of human trafficking. The National Intervention and Consultation Center for Victims of Human Trafficking provided assistance to 168 possible victims, 3 of whom were children. There has also been a new trend in human trafficking in the area of illegal adoptions in recent months.
Moreover, minors constitute the overwhelming percentage of victims in certain areas of human trafficking. They include:
Coercion to crimes, e.g. pickpocketing, shoplifting,
Coercing to a drug-related crimes, e.g. being used for cultivation work
Criminal networks play a special role in the practice of human trafficking and illegal migration.
In November 2019 the Polish Border Guard, in cooperation with Europol, identified and dismantled across the country, an organized group responsible for smuggling 13,000 people from outside Europe. The criminals earned 2.3 million euros from smuggling. This confirms that Poland is an important area of transit for victims of human trafficking and illegal migration. The current situation caused by COVID-19 is also important. It has influenced a change in the modus operandi of organized crime networks. According to data from Europol (see Europol, "European Migrant Smuggling Center 4th Annual Report", 2019), due to increased border control measures and the introduction of travel restrictions, there is a visible change in the smuggling operating strategy:
Cessation of using air channels in favor of sea and land.
Increased use of small boats used to cross borders.
Significant number of the new modus operandi of criminals is based on applications and social media, including Darknet and WhatsApp, which are used to organize transfers, recruitment, documents sales, etc. Europol estimates show, that in 2020 and in the years to come, the Internet will play an increasing role in human trafficking chain.
Mapping the national situation related to human trafficking, based on the data of the Police, Border Guard and Europol, made it possible to identify the Baltic Sea region, West Pomeranian Voivodship, Lower Silesian Voivodship, Lubusz Voivodship as high-risk areas. This entails the need to intensify control and monitoring, and to increase the competences of officers and civilian employees.
Taking into account the complex and multi-threaded mechanism of the human trafficking crime, the multitude forms of use and the use of the Internet as an recruitment channel, it is extremely important to raise public awareness of the practice. Informing about the threat and presenting the principles of operation of criminals, constitutes knowledge that enables effective defense against the danger. In this context, it is particularly important to reach people at risk with the campaign - school and university youth, single mothers, unemployed people and job seekers abroad.
In summary, taking into account the national context as well as trends and conditions caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, specific preventive measures include: actions increasing public awareness (workshops, conferences, trainings, conferences), strengthening the control of high-risk places, training officers and employees of public authorities, strengthening cross-border cooperation
Gender-based violence
The practice of human trafficking and illegal or forced migration is related to the phenomenon of gender-based violence. It is an act of violence related to the fact, that a person is gender specific, and as a result is, or may be, physical, sexual or psychological harmed. This problem mainly affects women and girls. It can take many forms: forced marriages (including forcing minors into marriage), forced prostitution, mental and physical violence.
The phenomenon of gender-based violence also occurs in the practice of forced labor, forced prostitution, and the organization of "transfers" of illegal migrants.
The officers' task is to identify potential victims and establish contact with them, bearing in mind that the victim often doesn’t want help. This translates into the need of providing professional psychological help, having high competences in the field of communication and providing information on the available legal options and other available forms of assistance. Due to this, it is extremely important to improve the competences of service officers and civil employees. This will enable professional support to be provided to victims and increase its effectiveness.
Regional Police Headquarters in Szczecin
Regional Police Headquarters in Wrocław
Regional Police Headquarters in Gorzów Wielkopolski
West Pomeranian Voivodship Office in Szczecin
Maritime Branch of the Border Guard in Gdańsk
District Prosecutor's Office in Szczecin,
West Pomeranian Voivodeship Marshal's Office
DA DU Association,
La Strada - Foundation Against Human Trafficking and Slavery
Empowering Children Foundation
IPA - International Police Association
Local Education Authority in Szczecin
National Police Headquarters
Metropolitan Police Headquarters in Warsaw
Foreign entities:
Lviv State University of Internal Affairs, Ukraine
West Yorkshire Police, UK
Metropolitan Police Headquarters, Zagreb, Croatia
Regional Police Headquarters in Bitola, Macedonia
Police Presidium in MECKLENBURG-VORPOMMERN, Germany
Developed by:
Ewa Maślana
Aid Funds Team Coordinator of the Regional Police Headquarters in Szczecin
