KOK News

On the European Day against Trafficking in Human Beings, 18.10.2016, we call upon all European governments to implement the 10 action points described below to ensure that trafficked persons can access their right to compensation and to remove the obstacles that prevent them from doing so.
Most European countries have legal provisions for victims of crime to claim compensation or otherwise to be compensated for material and non-material damages.
However, even when the legal framework is in place, the right of people who have been trafficked or exploited to actually seek and obtain compensation remains one that is difficult or impossible to exercise in practice. Evidence shows that very few trafficked persons have the information and the means to seek compensation. Even fewer actually receive a compensation payment.

Although compensation is an internationally recognised right of trafficked persons, there are many barriers that prevent them from accessing this right.

Obstacles include lack of awareness among police and the judicial system, lack of access to legal aid and adequate information for victims, the postponement of trials and long duration of criminal and civil proceedings, and, in the case of foreign victims, their return or deportation to their country of origin before a verdict is reached. Other reasons for denying compensation to trafficked persons may be their irregular immigration status or their involvement in the sex industry. But even when compensation is granted, trafficked persons rarely have the means to ensure a compensation order is actually enforced, so that they receive some payment.

Another barrier to trafficked persons obtaining compensation is that the traffickers are not found, or are not prosecuted, or have moved their assets abroad and/or have declared themselves bankrupt to avoid confiscation of their assets and having to pay compensation.