Human Trafficking and Corruption:
Examining the Role of Corruption in
Facilitating Human Trafficking and
Assessing the Contribution of the Financial
Sector in the Fight against both Crimes
By
Stamatia Sakelliou
Student number: 12818542
tinasak1@yahoo.gr
Master Thesis
LL.M. International and Transnational Criminal Law
University of Amsterdam, Law School
Supervisor
Professor Dr. Jill E.B. Coster van Voorhout
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TABLE OF CONTENTS
LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS 3
ABSTRACT 4
1. INTRODUCTION 5
1.1. Research Question, Methods, Scientific and Societal Relevance 9 2. UNFOLDING THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN HUMAN
TRAFFICKING AND CORRUPTION 12
2.1. Overview of the International Legal Framework on Human
Trafficking 12
2.2. Establishing the Link between Human Trafficking and Corruption 14 2.2.1. Corruption as a Root Cause of Human Trafficking 14 2.2.2. How Corruption Can Directly Link to Human Trafficking? 15
2.3. Conclusion 16
3. CORRUPTION IN THE PUBLIC SECTOR AS A FACILITATOR OF
HUMAN TRAFFICKING 17
3.1. Modes of Corrupt Public Officials’ Participation in Human
Trafficking Activities 18
3.2. Reviewing the Impact of Corruption throughout the Stages of the
Human Trafficking Chain 20
3.3. Recommendations to Break the Chain between Human
Trafficking and Corruption 25
3.4. Conclusion 28
4. EXAMINING THE CONTRIBUTION OF THE FINANCIAL SECTOR IN COMBATTING HUMAN TRAFFICKING AND TRAFFICKING-
RELATED CORRUPTION 29
4.1. Human Trafficking as a Business Model: Assessing the
Effectiveness of a Financial Approach 30 4.2. Making Use of KYC and AML/CFT Legislation in the Context of
the Anti-Human Trafficking and Anti-Corruption Field. 33 4.3. Challenges Related to the Employment of KYC and AML/CFT
Practices in Countering Human Trafficking and Corruption. 38
4.4. Conclusion 40
5. CONCLUDING REMARKS 41
BIBLIOGRAPHY 43
A. PRIMARY SOURCES 43
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LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS
AML Anti-Money LaunderingBJP Bharatiya Janata Party (Political party of the Republic of India)
CEDAW Convention on the Elimination of all Forms of Discrimination Against Women CEDAW CO United Nations Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women CFT Counter-Terrorist Financing
CoE Council of Europe
CRC Convention on the Rights of the Child ECtHR European Court of Human Rights EU European Union
FATF Financial Action Task Force FIU Financial Intelligence Unit
FRONTEX European Border and Coast Guard Agency (Frontières Extérieures) HRC CO United Nations Human Rights Committee
IACrtHR Inter-American Court of Human Rights IBA International Bar Association
ICCRP International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights ICTY International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia ILO International Labour Organization
KYC Know your Customer MSBs Money Service Businesses
NGOs Non-Governmental Organizations
OECD Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development OSCE Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe
PACO Programme against Corruption and Organised Crime in South-eastern Europe PNR Passenger Name Record
SARs Suspicious Activity Reports STRs Suspicious Transaction Reports TI Transparency International TIP Trafficking in Persons UK United Kingdom
UNCAC United Nations Convention against Corruption UNODC United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime
UNTOC United Nations Convention against Organized Crime USDS United States Department of State
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ABSTRACT
Human trafficking stands among the most lucrative and simultaneously low risk crimes globally. At the same time, it represents a gross human rights abuse, as victims’ dignity and personal integrity is severely hurt. In this regard, tackling human trafficking has been raised among states’ priorities in the last decades and as a result, international instruments, such as the Palermo Protocol, have been introduced to serve both the goal of repression of human trafficking and the need to provide adequate protection to victims. However, the destructive role of corruption in boosting human trafficking activities has been less addressed in research. In this context, this thesis aims at providing an insight into the extent that public sector corruption fuels human trafficking. To that end, a comparative law methodology is adopted, as several relevant examples, originating from various jurisdictions, are put forward. In addition, the present thesis addresses the potential of the financial sector, notably of banks, to contribute to the strengthening of anti-human trafficking and anti-corruption policies by means of ‘Know Your Customer’, anti-money laundering and counter-terrorist financing techniques .The answering of the research question and the sub-questions of the present thesis flows from literature research, case law analysis as well as from the examination of European and international legislation pertaining to the topics of human trafficking and corruption. Based on the use of the abovementioned research methods, the findings of this work display the pressing need to coordinate anti-human trafficking and anti-corruption policies along with mobilizing financial institutions in the effort to increase the effectiveness of counter human trafficking and human trafficking -related corruption initiatives.
Key Words: human trafficking, corruption, Palermo Protocol, financial sector, banks, money-laundering, Know Your Customer
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1. INTRODUCTION
Let us imagine a typical scenario of human trafficking- related corruption, involving a public official, for example working in the border security field, who facilitates the illegal entry of trafficking organizations in destination countries or falsifies travel documents. It is obvious that the trafficking operation in question would have not succeeded without the official’s contribution. Indeed, the link between corruption and human trafficking has been explicitly addressed by the United Nations Human Rights Committee (HRC CO) in cases against Cambodia1, Albania2, Brazil3 and Bosnia and
Herzegovina4 on the grounds of violations of Article 8 and 40 of ICCPR. These cases
are further discussed in section 2.2.2.
Human trafficking is one of the most lucrative crimes, entailing at the same time low risk for perpetrators to be brought to justice. It is estimated that about 24.9 million people are trafficked at a global scale, in industries including sexual exploitation, forced labor and removal of organs,5 while revenues from human trafficking activities amount
to approximately $150 billion.6 The need to criminalize and prosecute human
trafficking effectively, notably as a transnational crime, emerged in the 1990s, since it became evident that human trafficking constituted a distinct crime from slavery as defined in the Slavery Convention of 1926 and the Supplementary Convention.7
Human trafficking is criminalized at the international level under the ‘Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punish Human trafficking, especially Women and Children’,8
Supplementing the UN Convention against Transnational Organized Crime,9 the so
called, ‘Palermo Protocol’. More particularly, Article 3 stipulates that ‘“Human
1 HRC CO Cambodia 27 July 1999, UN Doc. CCPR/C/79/Add.108. 2 HRC CO Albania 2 December 2004, UN Doc. CCPR/C0/82.ALB. 3 HRC CO Brazil 1 December 2005, UN Doc. CCPR/C/BRA/CO/2.
4 HRC CO Bosnia and Herzegovina 22 November 2006, UN Doc. CCPR/C/BIH/CO/1.
5 International Labour Organisation (ILO) Report, ‘Global Estimates of Modern Slavery’ (2017), available
at:<https://www.ilo.org/wcmsp5/groups/public/@dgreports/@dcomm/documents/publication/wcm s_575479.pdf> .
6 ILO report ‘Profits and Poverty: The Economics of Forced Labor’ (2014), Part 1, available at:
< https://www.ilo.org/global/topics/forced-labour/publications/profits-of-forced-labour-2014/lang--en/index.htm>,
7 Neil Boister, An Introduction to Transnational Criminal Law (Oxford 2018) 62.
8 UN General Assembly, Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punish Human trafficking, Especially Women
and Children, Supplementing the United Nations Convention against Transnational Organized Crime (15 November 2000).
9 UN General Assembly, United Nations Convention against Transnational Organized Crime: resolution
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trafficking” shall mean the recruitment, transportation, transfer, harbouring or receipt of persons, by means of the threat or use of force or other forms of coercion, of abduction, of fraud, of deception, of abuse of power or of a position of vulnerability or of the giving or receiving of payments or benefits to achieve the consent of a person having control over another person, for the purpose of exploitation. Exploitation shall include at a minimum, the exploitation of the prostitution of others or other forms of sexual exploitation, forced labour or services, slavery or practices similar to slavery, servitude or the removal of organs’.10 Taking into account the wide scope of this
definition, the study of human trafficking for the purpose of the present thesis is restricted to the forms of trafficking for the purpose of sexual exploitation and forced labor. This limitation owes to the fact that, depending on the specificities of the respective region, human trafficking is detected to a large extent under these forms.11
As a result, studies exploring the impact of corruption on human trafficking as well as assessing the role of the financial sector in fighting human trafficking tend to focus on these particular facets of the crime.
Apart from amounting to a transnational crime, human trafficking also represents a grave human rights violation,12 owing to the fact that victims are treated as
‘commodities’13 for the sake of profit. In this context, as far as the current international
human rights law framework is concerned, human trafficking is prohibited under the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR),14 the Convention on the
Elimination of all forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW)15 and the
Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC)16 either explicitly mentioned or under the
10 Palermo Protocol, Art.3.
11 UNODC, ‘Global Report on Trafficking in Persons’ (2018), 10-11; UNODC ‘The Globalization of Crime:
A Transnational Organized Crime Threat Assessment’ (2010), 3: ‘out of 137 countries having detected victims, 79% of the victims were subjected to sexual exploitation’, 39: ‘two major activities can be identified: trafficking for the purposes of sexual exploitation and labour exploitation, including the use of child labour’.
12 Tenia Kyriazi, Εμπορία Ανθρώπων, Διεθνές & Ευρωπαϊκό Δίκαιο Προστασίας των Δικαιωμάτων του
Ανθρώπου (Νομική Βιβλιοθήκη 2010) 130.
13 Alexis A. Aronowitz, Anneke Koning, ‘Understanding Human Trafficking as a Market System:
Addressing the Demand Side of Trafficking for Sexual Exploitation’ (2014) 85(3) Revue Internationale de droit pénal 669, 672.
14 UN General Assembly, International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, (16 December
1966) United Nations, Treaty Series, Vol. 999, 171, Art. 8.
15 UN General Assembly, Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women
(18 December 1979) United Nations, Treaty Series, Vol. 1249, 13, Art. 6.
16 UN General Assembly, Convention on the Rights of the Child (20 November 1989) United Nations,
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ambit of prohibition of slavery and forced labor. In addition, incidents of human trafficking, slavery17 and servitude have been adjudicated by regional Human Rights
Courts, such as the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) and the Inter-American Court of Human Rights (IACrtHR) in cases including Siliadin v. France,18 Rantsev v.
Cyprus and Russia19 andHacienda Brasil Verde Workers v. Brazil. 20 In addition,
human trafficking is addressed in the context of international criminal law, since it may qualify as a crime against humanity within the ambit of ‘enslavement’, as formulated in the Kunarac case.21
Given that the ambit of the research question of this thesis is restricted to the study of the consequences of corrupt public officials’ behavior on the human trafficking chain, the issue of trafficking related corruption in the private sector is purposely excluded from the scope of the present thesis. The adoption of this narrow focus has been considered necessary given that due to the profound impact of corruption on social and economic development,22 thus of factors pertaining to the rise of human trafficking,
an analysis of all forms of trafficking related corruption would not be attainable. Furthermore, it is necessary to proceed to some further clarifications pertaining to corruption in order to determine accurately the scope of the present paper. Given that corruption is a multifaceted and complex crime which entails a wide scope of offences, such as active and passive bribery, embezzlement, trading in influence, abuse of functions, illicit enrichment, 23 an international legal definition of corruption has not
yet come to light. However, its constitutive elements have been operationalized by international institutions and organizations, for example by Transparency International (TI), which defines corruption as ‘the abuse of entrusted power for private gain’ and can encompass several types of criminal behavior such as ‘public servants demanding
17 For more details on the qualification of human trafficking as contemporary slavery, see: Anne T.
Gallagher, The International Law of Human Trafficking (Cambridge University Press 2010) 190.
18 Siliadin v. France, ECtHR (26/06/2005) Application no. 73316/01.
19 Rantsev v. Cyprus and Russia, ECtHR (07/01/2010) Application no.25965/04.
20Hacienda Brasil Verde Workers v. Brazil,IACrtHR, Judgment of 20 October 2016 (Series C) No. 318. 21 Prosecutor v. Kunarac, Kovač and Vuković, ICTY, Judgment, Case No. IT-96-23-T & IT-96-23/1-T, 22
February 2001, paras 542, 543. For a detailed analysis on the judgment, see: Harmen van der Wilt, ‘Trafficking in Human Beings, Enslavement, Crimes against Humanity: Unravelling the Concepts’ (2014) 13(2) Chinese Journal of International Law 297, 303-308.
22 See for example, Yelena Popova, Nataly Podolyakina, ‘Pervasive impact of corruption on social system
and economic growth’ (2014) 110 Procedia-Social and Behavioral Sciences 727.
23 UN General Assembly, ‘United Nations Convention against Corruption’ (31 October 2003) A/58/422,
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or taking money or favors in exchange for services’, ‘politicians misusing public money or granting public jobs or contracts to their sponsors, friends and families’ or ‘corporations bribing officials to get lucrative deals.’24
As far as the notion of ‘public officials’ is concerned, in the context of the UN Convention against Corruption (UNCAC)25, a public official is defined as ‘(i) Any
person holding a legislative, executive, administrative or judicial office of a State Party, whether appointed or elected, whether permanent or temporary, whether paid or unpaid, irrespective of that person’s seniority; (ii) any other person who performs a public function, including for a public agency or public enterprise, or provides a public service, as defined in the domestic law of the State Party and as applied in the pertinent area of law of that State Party; (iii) any other person defined as a ‘public official’ in the domestic law of a State Party.’26
It follows from the above definition that the notion of ‘public official’ is broad enough to include a variety of positions and functions in the government hierarchy. More specifically, according to A. Rusev’s classification,27 corruption in the public
sector affecting human trafficking can be classified firstly in administrative corruption, for example when officials turn a blind eye to the legality of sex workers’ activities in destination countries where prostitution is regulated and judicial corruption, including the targeting of judges and prosecutors by organized human trafficking networks with the aim of obstructing the prosecution and fair adjudication of human trafficking cases. Next, there is law enforcement corruption, concerning corrupt police officers susceptible both to obstruct investigations and receive direct payments for sex services, and political corruption which arises when traffickers gain direct access to politicians, as it may occur in Southeast and Eastern European countries. Taking into account this categorization, it becomes clear that the cases of UNHRC CO mentioned in the introduction constitute typical examples of human trafficking-related corruption, since, as discussed further in section 2.2.2., a wide range of public officials is involved in corrupt acts that boost human trafficking.
24 Transparency International website, available at: <
https://www.transparency.org/en/what-is-corruption>.
25 UN General Assembly,‘United Nations Convention against Corruption’ (31 October 2003) A/58/422 26 UNCAC, Art. 2.
27 Atanas Rusev, ‘Human Trafficking Border Security and Related Corruption in the EU’ (2013) DCAF
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1.1. Research Question, Methods, Scientific and Societal Relevance
The central research question that will be answered in this thesis is the examination of the contribution of public officials’ corrupt behavior to the rise and flourishing of human trafficking activities. In this context, this work argues that public sector corruption constitutes a major factor facilitating human trafficking operations. In order to gain an insight into the magnitude and persistence of the problem, it is worth referring to a survey issued by the Joint Parliamentary Commission of Inquiry of Brazil back in 2004, which revealed that corruption was involved in 71 percent of all human trafficking cases that were put under examination.28
Moreover, as posited by L. Holmes, public officials may be involved in human trafficking activities in various ways such as, directly by i) running the trafficking operation, ii) participating in a trafficking operation by several means such as turning a blind eye during illegal border crossings, by notifying criminal networks before possible raids or by contributing to re-victimization of previously trafficked individuals.29 Furthermore, public officials’ indirect modes of participation may entail
denial to investigate and prosecute alleged human trafficking cases or even the exercise of pressure upon members of legislative bodies in order to subvert anti-trafficking laws.30
Taking it one step further, the following sub-questions emanate from the above research question: The first sub-question which is answered in the second chapter by means of reference to international legislative instruments, relevant cases and literature sources intends to further clarify the international legal framework on human trafficking and next, to draw a distinction between corruption as a root cause of human trafficking and as a key factor in facilitating human trafficking activities. To that end, this section provides a descriptive approach on these different issues and, consequently, the descriptive research method is employed.
28 Andrea Cirineo Sacco Studnicka, ‘Corruption and Human Trafficking in Brazil: Findings from a
Multi-Modal Approach’ (2010) 7(1) European Journal of Criminology 29, 40.
29 Leslie Holmes, ‘Human Trafficking and Corruption: Triple Victimization?’ in C. Friesendorf (ed.),
Strategies against Human Trafficking: The Role of Security Sector, (National Defence Academy and Austrian Ministry of Defence and Sports Vienna and Geneva 2009) 83-114.
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The next sub-questions, answered in the third chapter pertain to the following issues: Firstly, unravelling the modes of public officials’ participation in human trafficking and secondly examining how public sector corruption influences the functioning of human trafficking operations at every stage of the trafficking chain, with the aid of the descriptive research method. Another sub-issue included in this section relates to the identification of legislative and operational measures that States should undertake to curb incidents of corruption in the public sector allowing human trafficking. In view of the large number of recommendations that are proposed, the advisory research method is also used.
The last chapter is dedicated to the analysis of the final sub-question discussing the perspective of conducting financial investigations jointly with criminal inquiries as well as financial institutions’ capacity to contribute to the fight against human trafficking and corruption. Considering that an assessment of the effects of such a perspective is conducted along with the analysis of the relevant legal framework and practices, the evaluative and the descriptive research methods are employed. In addition, this section contributes considerably to the answering of the research question because, as argued in the respective chapter (chapter 4), mobilizing financial institutions may assist in detecting both human trafficking and corruption cases, for instance through the spotting of traces in banking records.
The above research question and sub-questions are answered with the aid of literature research and reports conducted by international and European organizations, along with reference to relevant case law. More specifically, for the sake of illustrating clearly the effect of public sector corruption on human trafficking activities, various relevant examples originating from several States as well as cases that took place in a variety of countries are put forward. In view of the above, using comparative law methodology has been considered necessary in order to answer accurately the research question of this thesis. In this regard, a broad geographical scope has been favored, as limiting the analysis to certain areas would entail a rather superficial approach. Furthermore, most of the examples and cases that are mentioned in this work relate to countries classified in the second and third Tier of the US Department of State (USDS)
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Trafficking in Persons (TIP) Reports, thus of States that are invited to take substantive steps to enforce their anti- human trafficking legislation.31
In terms of scientific relevance, the attempt to demonstrate the disastrous effect of corruption on human trafficking and to relate the financial sector to the anti- human trafficking and anti-corruption policies constitutes a major step in the study of both crimes. Although the strong link between the two crimes, notably in regards to corrupt behavior demonstrated by public officials, has been clearly established by several scholars32 and international organizations,33 this work intends to identify the
concrete impact of corruption occurring in the public sector through the study of the consequences of corrupt public officials’ involvement in each stage of the trafficking chain (recruitment, transportation, harboring-exploitation) which constitutes a less investigated issue in academic research.34 Furthermore, this work could be placed
among the few studies endeavoring to associate the problem of corruption fueling human trafficking with the ability of financial institutions, notably of banks, to offer essential assistance in the anti- human trafficking and anti-corruption arena by means of a fruitful cooperation with law enforcement authorities. In this regard, despite the existence of several studies35 and reports36 that mention the potential of financial
institutions to help disrupting human trafficking networks, for instance through the use of anti-money laundering techniques, there is a gap in the literature concerning the issue
31 For further information on the role of TIP Reports and Tier classification concerning States’
compliance with anti-trafficking standards, see: Congressional Research Service ‘The State Department’s Trafficking in Persons Report: Scope, Aid Restrictions, and Methodology’ (2019), available at: <https://fas.org/sgp/crs/row/R44953.pdf>.
32 See for example Louise Shelley, Human Trafficking, a Global Perspective (Cambridge University Press
2010) 48; Cassandra DiRienzo, ‘Compliance with Anti-human Trafficking Policies: the Mediating Effect of Corruption’ (2018) 70(1) Crime Law and Social Change 525, 528-529.
33 See for example OECD Background Paper, ‘Developing a Framework for Combatting Corruption
Related to Human trafficking’ (2015); UNODC, ‘The Role of Corruption in Trafficking in Persons’ (2011).
34 Whereas the studies mentioned in notes 32 and 33 address the link between corruption and human
trafficking, a thorough analysis of the intersection mechanisms with the use of specific examples has been conducted only in a few studies, such as in: Atanas Rusev, ‘Human Trafficking Border Security and Related Corruption in the EU’ (2013) DCAF Brussels, Migration and the Security Sector Paper Series; Rose Broad, Nicholas Lord, ‘Corruption as a Facilitator of Human Trafficking: Some Key Analytical Issues’ in L. Campbell, N. Lord (eds), Corruption in Commercial Enterprise: Law, Theory and Practice’ (Abingdon Routledge 2018); Luz Estrella Nagle, Understanding Human Trafficking, Corruption, and the Optics of Misconduct in the Public, Private, and NGO sectors: Causes, Actors, and Solutions, (Carolina Academic Press LLC 2017).
35 See for example, Karen Bravo, ‘Follow the Money? Does the International Fight Against Money
Laundering Provide a Model for International Anti-Human Trafficking Efforts?’ (2008) 6(1) University of St. Thomas Law Journal 139.
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of linking human trafficking-related corruption to the engagement of the financial sector both in the anti-human trafficking and the anti-corruption field.
In addition, the issues discussed in this thesis are of high societal relevance considering the severe impact of corruption on trafficked victims, especially their inability to further the prosecution and fair adjudication of their cases in the event that corruption affects law enforcement and the criminal justice system.37 Moreover, even
if corruption has not penetrated criminal justice actors, it is very unlikely for corrupt public officials’ cases to be brought to justice as well as for prosecutors to achieve convictions based on public’ officials corrupt behavior.38 Therefore, unravelling the
relationship between corruption in the public sector and human trafficking can serve as a tool to fight impunity in human trafficking cases.
2. UNFOLDING THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN HUMAN
TRAFFICKING AND CORRUPTION
2.1. Overview of the International Legal Framework on Human
Trafficking
Before associating human trafficking with corruption in the subsequent sections, this part aims at familiarizing the reader with the crime of human trafficking as it is regulated at the international level.
Starting from the Palermo Protocol, the adopted definition is broad enough to cover multiple situations of the human trafficking process, with perpetrators being either powerful criminal organizations or individuals. As mentioned in the introduction, the definition of human trafficking in the Palermo Protocol consists of the following constituent elements: Firstly, there is a requirement for action, and secondly, the crime
37 See in Jan van Dijk, Fanny Klerx-Van Mierlo ‘Revisiting the Link between Corruption Prevalence and
Implementation Failure in Anti-Trafficking Policies’ (2013) 7(2) International Perspectives in Victimology 1, 2: ‘…trafficked persons across borders. In addition, organised traffickers seek immunity from arrest, criminal prosecution or sentencing through payments to law enforcement and criminal justice officials’(…) ‘Also Italy and Lithuania are countries where groups involved in trafficking in women and children for sexual exploitation exert strong influence on customs, police, border officials, and criminal justice institutions…’.
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must be committed by particular means for the purpose of exploitation.39 In order to
gain control over potential victims, traffickers use a variety of methods to render them vulnerable, ranging from physical or verbal abuse and removal of victims’ identification documents to the practice of ‘debt-bondage’. In this case, traffickers persuade victims that they owe money to them related to their travelling costs or living expenses.40
Furthermore, due to the increased harm that human trafficking entails for victims, the Protocol includes provisions inviting national jurisdictions to adopt measures in favor of victims’ protection.41 In this context, the ‘3P’ model
(Prevention-Prosecution-Protection) is introduced as a key strategy to fight human trafficking. Next, moving from the Palermo Protocol, the Council of Europe Convention on Action against Trafficking in Human Beings42 issued by the Council of Europe (CoE
Convention) is an instrument reflecting the unique character of human trafficking as a crime raising serious human rights concerns. In this regard, the Convention disposes a wide scope of application43 by withdrawing the requirements of transnationality and
organized criminal activity,44 and including on the other hand, provisions aiming both
at criminalization45 and prosecution46 of human trafficking as well as at prevention47
providing for specific measures for the assistance to victims.48
39 Palermo Protocol, Art. 3(a).
40 World Bank, Social Development Notes: Conflict, Crime and Violence (2009) 54683, No.122, 2. 41 For example, it includes measures for medical, psychological and educational support of victims
(Art.6), as well as the right to remain in the territory of the country where victims were trafficked in order to avoid eventual second victimization due to a forced return to the country of origin (Art.7).
42 Council of Europe Convention on Action against Trafficking in Human Beings (16/5/2005) CETS
No.197. 43 Ibid, Art.2. 44 Ibid. 45 Ibid Ch. IV. 46 Ibid Ch. V. 47 Ibid Ch. II. 48 Ibid Ch. III.
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2.2. Establishing the Link between Human Trafficking and
Corruption
2.2.1. Corruption as a Root Cause of Human Trafficking
Although this thesis focuses on the role of corruption as a phenomenon facilitating the rise and flourishing of trafficking activities, a brief mention to public officials’ corrupt behavior as a source of human trafficking incidents should be made at this point. According to a study conducted by Zhang and Pineda49, corruption in the form of
‘public officials seeking financial reward by either looking the other way or facilitating human trafficking activities’ is elevated together with poverty as a fundamental cause of human trafficking.50 K. Bales has also pinpointed corruption among the most
significant indicators of human trafficking in comparison to other relevant factors such as population or food production.51
Moreover, it is assumed in studies focusing on specific countries that corruption functioning as root cause paves the way for the creation of a state of economic and social vulnerability, thus of a situation which favors traffickers’ activities.52 In this
context, in States suffering from systematic53 corruption, public administration often
fails to provide adequate healthcare and education to the population.54 As a result,
certain social groups, such as both adult and underage women who may be severely deprived of an access to education and well- remunerated jobs, are more likely to become victims of sexual exploitation or forced labor.55
Corruption is elevated as an underlying root cause of human trafficking under the ‘push and pull’ factors doctrine as well, on the grounds of which, ‘pull’ factors are
49 Sheldon X. Zhang, Samuel L. Pineda, ‘Corruption as a Causal Factor in Human Trafficking’ in D.Siegel,
H. Nelen (eds), Organized Crime: Culture, Markets and Policies. Studies in Organized Crime (Springer 2008) Vol. 7.
50 Ibid, 45.
51 Kevin Bales, Understanding Global Slavery: A Reader (University of California Press 2005) 103. 52 See for example M. Bashir Uddin, ‘Human Trafficking in South Asia: Issues of Corruption and Human
Security’ (2014) 2(1) International Journal of Social Work and Human Services Practice 18.
53 ‘Systematic’ corruption, also known as ’endemic’ corruption, is present when ‘corruption is an
integral part of a state's economic, social and political system, and where most people have no alternatives to dealing with corrupt officials. Sporadic corruption, in contrast, occurs irregularly and does not compromise the mechanisms of governance in the same crippling way’. Anti-corruption Resource Centre, available at: <https:www.u4.no/terms#>.
54 Osita Agbu, ‘Corruption and Human Trafficking: the Nigerian Case’ (2003) 4(1) West Africa Review, 4. 55 Bashir Uddin (n 52) 22.
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positive characteristics of destination countries attracting migration flows, whistle ‘push’ factors refer to institutional discrepancies in countries of origin that urge individuals to migrate.56 Under this approach, corruption qualifies as a ‘push’ factor in
trafficking source countries, whereas it has been found that destination countries have a negative correlation with corruption.57 Moreover, traffickers prefer to set up their
businesses in countries where corruption penetrates pivotal sectors for the fight against human trafficking, such as law enforcement.58 As a consequence, it can be argued that
affected States should set the control of corruption as a priority to reduce demand for trafficking victims.
2.2.2. How Corruption Can Directly Link to Human Trafficking?
In the UN Human Rights Committee’s concluding observations on cases against Albania, Cambodia, Bosnia- Herzegovina and Brazil, importance is attributed to the need that respondent States adopt adequate measures to effectively prosecute human trafficking incidents, to impose severe enough sentences to perpetrators, to provide sufficient protection for witnesses and victims and to reinforce international cooperation on combatting human trafficking.59 Moreover, in the case of Cambodia,
the Committee highlights the fact that anti-trafficking laws are not sufficiently enforced, resulting in increased numbers of men, women and children being trafficked.60 Along with the need that States take positive steps to reinforce
anti-trafficking legislation and action, the Committee is concerned about phenomena implying the involvement of public officials in human trafficking and invites States to act in order to ‘root-out trafficking-related official corruption’,61 to ‘enforce
anti-corruption measures in respect of law-enforcement officers’ as well as to ensure that ‘judges, prosecutors and law-enforcement officers receive intensified training on the application of anti-trafficking and anti-corruption standards’.62
56 Muhammad Tariq Majeed, Amna Malik, ‘Selling Souls: An Empirical Analysis of Human Trafficking and
Globalization’ (2017) Munich Personal RePEc Archive Paper No. 88850, 3.
57 Kevin Bales, ‘What Predicts Human Trafficking?’ (2007) 31 International Journal of Comparative and
Applied Criminal Justice 269, 275.
58 Seo Young-Cho, ‘Modeling for Determinants of Human Trafficking: An Empirical Analysis’ (2015) 3(1)
Social Inclusion 2, 4.
59 HRC CO Albania (2004), para 15, Brazil (2005), para 15, Bosnia and Herzegovina (2006), para 16. 60 HRC CO Cambodia (1999), para 16.
61 HRC CO Brazil (2005), para 15.
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The issue of trafficking-related corruption has also been raised in the case of N. v. the Netherlands63 that has been brought before the UN Committee on the
Elimination of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW CO) including inter alia a complaint of alleged violation of article 6 CEDAW which stipulates the obligation for States to suppress human trafficking victimizing women.64 The author of the
communication in question, having fallen victim of domestic servitude, sexual slavery and serious physical abuse, highlighted the difficulties that she faced during her efforts to seek justice because of the fact that the offender had, inter alia, bribed the police officers to whom she had communicated her situation.65 She also mentioned the lack of
an effective and accessible legislative framework for the protection of women in Mongolia due to the widespread occurrence of corruption within law enforcement.66
When linking the cases discussed above to the debate concerning the impact of corruption on human trafficking, it can be deduced that corruption obstructs the enjoyment of fundamental human rights, including the right not to be subjected to human trafficking.67 In this context, increasingly more scholars argue that human rights
protection policies and specifically anti-trafficking laws must be necessarily combined with tackling corruption.68
2.3. Conclusion
It follows from the above, firstly, that the goal of criminal repression of human trafficking is gradually complemented by a human rights- based approach. In addition, it is acknowledged that widespread corruption in the public sector boosts human trafficking networks’ activities, functioning both as an underlying root cause of human trafficking and as a factor that facilitates traffickers’ acts. Considering these
63 CEDAW CO Communication No. 39/2012 10-28 February 2014 UN Doc. CEDAW/C/57/D/39/2012 64 CEDAW, Art 6. ‘States Parties shall take all appropriate measures, including legislation, to suppress
all forms of trafficking in women and exploitation of prostitution of women’.
65 CEDAW CO Communication No. 39/2012, para 2.5. 66 CEDAW CO Communication No. 39/2012, para 2.11
67 For a detailed analysis on the impact of corruption on the enjoyment of civil and political rights,
including the right not to be subjected to human trafficking, see: Anne Peters, ‘Corruption as a Violation of International Human Rights’ (2018) 29(4) The European Journal of International Law 1251; Martine Boersma, Corruption: A Violation of Human Rights and a Crime under International Law?’ (Intersentia 2012) Human Rights Research Series, Vol. 56, Ch. VI, 195-274.
68 See for example Martina Vandenberg, ‘Complicity, Corruption and Human Rights: Trafficking in
Human Beings’ (2002) 34(3) Case Western Reserve Journal of International Law 323, 330, where she observes that ‘we seek to put an end to police corruption and state complicity, without which trafficking could not flourish’.
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assumptions, it is necessary that the link between human trafficking and corruption is further exemplified and concretized in order to obtain tangible results in reducing human trafficking cases.
3. CORRUPTION ΙΝ ΤΗΕ PUBLIC SECTOR AS A FACILITATOR
OF HUMAN TRAFFICKING
As it has been argued in the previous chapter, corruption functions both as a root cause of human trafficking and as a key factor in facilitating traffickers’ activities.69 In this
regard, this chapter is dedicated to a more detailed study of the concrete impact that public sector corruption exercises on human trafficking.
In view of the complexity of human trafficking as a crime and the fact that it consists of various separate stages, starting from the recruitment of the victims, then their transportation and transfer and finally harboring and exploitation of trafficked individuals, corrupt public officials enjoy equally numerous opportunities to boost human trafficking. More specifically, according to a report conducted by OECD, public sector corruption affecting human trafficking entails the following consequences: a. It allows for the crime to be invisible.
b. It facilitates impunity once a case of human trafficking is detected. c. It facilitates the execution of the crime.
d. It assures the re-victimization of the trafficked victims.70
Taking into account the above categorization, it remains to be examined in the following two sections, firstly the issue of public officials’ patterns of involvement in human trafficking activities and secondly the consequences of their corrupt behavior throughout the stages of the trafficking chain.
69 UNODC (2011) (n 33) 4. 70 OECD (2015) (n 33) 10.
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3.1. Modes of Corrupt Public Officials’ Participation in Human
Trafficking Activities
In order to illustrate public officials’ involvement in human trafficking, L.E. Nagle has introduced the following classification, on the basis of which, public sector corruption is demonstrated through: ‘i) collusion and active participation in human trafficking by public officials, ii) bribery of public officials that benefit by looking the other way, iii) involuntary corruption by public officials who are coerced or blackmailed into participation in human trafficking.’71
Accepting bribes, thus becoming accomplices through passive participation to the commission of human trafficking acts, lies among the most typical forms of public officials’ participation in human trafficking.72 This is for example the case of officials
turning a blind eye towards human trafficking incidents, for instance by purposely refraining from controlling unlicensed prostitution or by granting protection to traffickers.73 Nevertheless, apart from passive participation through the receipt of
bribes, public officials’ corrupt behavior may also involve collusion and active participation in human trafficking. For example, due to their proximity to vulnerable populations, officials are in a position to themselves own and operate sex trafficking establishments either by acting on their own or in concert with trafficking gangs.74 For
example, in France, UK, Greece and Bulgaria police officers have been directly involved in setting up and running sex businesses.75 In this regard, it is possible that a
police officer may choose to traffic a single victim or prefer to run a commercial sex establishment where numerous victims’ services are used.76
Furthermore, public officials’ exposure to corruption may allow massive human trafficking operations to take place, as it happened in the case of thousands Eritrean refugees that since 2006 flee to Sinai Peninsula in Egypt. More specifically, in November 2013 Sudanese criminal gangs trafficked Eritrean refugees with the purpose
71 Nagle (n 34) 85.
72 Ibid 100: As L.E. Nagle observes: ‘Bribery is an ancient means of corrupting any political system and
debilitating the integrity of public officials’.
73 Philip Gounev, Vincenzo Ruggiero (eds), Corruption and Organized Crime in Europe: Illegal
Partnerships (Routledge 2012) 80.
74 International Bar Association, ‘Human Trafficking and Public Corruption: a report by the IBA’s
Presidential Task Force against Human Trafficking’ (2016), 19.
75 Nagle (n 34) 94.
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to sell them to Egyptian traffickers in Sinai Peninsula, while subjecting them simultaneously to grave physical assault77. To that end, it appears that they have acted
in collusion with members of the Sudanese and Egyptian police and military who actively assisted traffickers in capturing victims at police stations, turned a blind eye at checkpoints and handed victims that had managed to escape over to traffickers.78
The role of corrupt police officers in supporting human trafficking has been equally pivotal in a case that took place in Burundi, where a child, having fallen victim of sexual exploitation, alleged that she was captured by a senior intelligence officer as a sex slave for several months while both her and her parents were threatened not to report the case.79 In order to ensure that she would not manage to escape, the offender
recruited police officers to supervise her.80
Ultimately, public officials may also cooperate involuntarily with human trafficking networks in case they are coerced or blackmailed to participate in human trafficking activities.81 More particularly, police officers are likely to be coerced by
traffickers into allowing their crimes to take place. In these cases, traffickers may take advantage of those officials’ previous criminal behavior, such as having used sex trafficking victims’ services, by recording them in order to be able to compromise them and acquire useful information on ongoing or impeding investigations.82 For instance,
it is possible that officials in question are blackmailed by criminal gangs into releasing the recordings revealing their illegal behavior unless they allow traffickers to carry on their activities.83
77 Human Rights Watch, ‘I Wanted to Lie Down and Die: Trafficking and Torture of Eritreans in Sudan
and Egypt’ (2014), available at: <https://www.hrw.org/report/2014/02/11/i-wanted-lie-down-and-die/trafficking-and-torture-eritreans-sudan-and-egypt>.
78 Ibid.
79 Esdras Ntikumana,’No Justice for Child Victims of Burundi’s Sex Traffic Rings’ Agence France-Presse
(2014), available at <https://www.modernghana.com/blogs/523652/no-justice-for-child-victims-of-burundis-sex-traffic-rings.html>. 80 Ibid. 81 Nagle (n 34) 108-109. 82 Gounev (n 73) 81. 83 Ibid.
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3.2. Reviewing the Impact of Corruption throughout the Stages of the
Human Trafficking Chain
This section endeavors to illustrate the widespread impact of public sector corruption on every pivotal stage throughout the trafficking chain, with emphasis put on the phases of recruitment, transportation and exploitation with the aid of relevant examples relating to a variety of countries widely affected by human trafficking.84
Corruption fuels human trafficking in all stages of the trafficking chain. Firstly, the stage of recruitment entails the building up of contacts through family members or acquaintances and the use of advertisements in the context of various industries such as hotels, agriculture and sex working. During this phase, public officials may be targeted for the provision of licenses and work visas, in order to enable the trafficking operation to start.85 A clear example, demonstrating how corrupt officials may boost human
trafficking during the recruitment phase, is that of Nepali legislation concerning workers wishing to work legally abroad.86 According to Nepal’s Foreign Employment
Act of 200787, domestic recruitment agencies are obliged to provide the Department of
Foreign Employment with specific documents including but not limited to a ‘demand letter’ from the receiving country, an employment contract and a guarantee letter from the recruitment agency.88 After having verified all required documents, the Labor
Department authorizes workers to migrate by stamping their passports.89 As a result of
this rather complex and bureaucratic procedure, it is very likely that officials involved are offered bribes or request them themselves in order either to precipitate the process or to turn a blind eye to potential legal obstacles.
On the other hand, informal recruitment practices entail equally high risk of officials’ exposure to corruption. For instance, in the Thai seafood industry, hiring workers via irregular channels by circumventing labor migration and regulation
84 See n 31. 85 Broad (n 34) 72.
86 The phenomenon of Nepalese migrant workers becoming victims of forced labor is widely
observed, as demonstrated by the project ‘ Protection of Nepalese Migrant Workers from Forced Labour and Human Trafficking through Better Regulation and Monitoring of Private Recruitment Agencies’, conducted by ILO from 1/9/2009 until 31/8/2010
<https://www.ilo.org/kathmandu/whatwedo/projects/WCMS_116897/lang--en/index.htm>.
87 Foreign Employment Act,2064-05-19 (5 September 2007). 88 Ibid Art. 21.
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procedures is a prevalent practice.90 As a result, the majority of workers recruited in
this sector in Thailand access the country by paying an intermediary in order either to ensure their entry in the country or to connect them with employers.91
Next, at the stage of transportation, the role of migration and customs officers, as well as of persons working in consulates or embassies, for instance at the external borders of the EU, becomes pivotal, considering the uplifting of travelling and movement restrictions in the Schengen Area accompanied with the adoption of liberal visa regimes with the major origin countries (Bulgaria, Romania, Albania, Serbia, Latin American countries).92 As a result, traffickers’ activities are less risky when it comes to
the transportation of victims through transit countries, until they reach their final destination.93
Considering the above, organizing illegal entries to destination countries and illegal exits from countries of origin represents the main trafficking facilitating action.94
A good example is that of an immigration official working at the Diosdado Macapagal International Airport in the Philippines, who has been charged as a trafficking conspirator95 for allowing human trafficking organizations to transport victims to
Malaysia. Similarly, there are reported cases of corrupt migration officials allowing victims to enter illegally the destination country. For instance, labor trafficking victims originating from Ukraine were urged to bribe Mexican immigration officials upon arriving in Mexico City.96 Furthermore, the falsification or forgery of travel documents
by immigration officials furthers cross border trafficking considerably.97 In this regard,
relevant cases involve in the first place the failure to report suspicious or counterfeit travel documents, in order to enable the entry of persons, normally not entitled to enter
90 Philippa Webb, Rosana Garcianda, ‘State Responsibility for Modern Slavery: Uncovering and Bridging
the Gap’ (2019) 68 (3) International and Comparative Law Quarterly 539, 547.
91 Ibid.
92 The example of the Schengen area in the EU has been specifically included in this section with the
purpose to illustrate clearly the impact of the limited travel restrictions within the EU on traffickers’ opportunities to collude with corrupt officials working in the field of migration, customs or border guarding.
93 FRONTEX, ‘Situational Overview of Trafficking in Human Beings’ (2011) 6. 94 IBA Report (2016) (n 74) 25-27.
95 Criminal Case No. 0310-2009, UNODC No. PHL055 Human Trafficking Case Law Database, available
at:<
https://sherloc.unodc.org/cld/case-law-doc/traffickingpersonscrimetype/phl/2012/crim._case_no._0310-2009.html>.
96 Order Denying Motion to Dismiss, United States v. Omelyan Botsvynyuk, No. 10-159-1 (16 July 2012)
2.
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the country.98 In the event however, that persons lack travel documents, traffickers may
secure the transportation of victims by offering bribes to migration officers.99 On the
contrary, the risk of interference with the authorities is considerably lower, if victims possess legitimate travel documents.100
Furthermore, a study conducted by the Center for the Study of Democracy (CSD)101 shed light on border guards’ attitude towards cross border organized crime
activities, including human trafficking. Although the results displayed high levels of border guards’ corruption relating to various forms of organized crime such as trafficking in cigarettes and smuggling of goods, only two member States reported incidents of corruption related to human trafficking, whereas eight States acknowledged that the connection between human trafficking and corruption is known, but not detected by internal law enforcement mechanisms.102
More particularly, in the event of human trafficking operations orchestrated by organized criminal groups, border guards’ facilitating actions may extend beyond the illegal movement of people across the border and even penetrate criminal justice systems. For example, they may provide traffickers with useful information on ongoing investigations in order to allow criminal groups to take protective measures.103
Furthermore, it is possible that human trafficking networks are informed of border guards shift schedules so that they have the opportunity to choose when to cross the border safely.104 In more extreme cases, migration officials may ‘fix’ travel stories
by manipulating databases, such as the Passenger Name Record (PNR)105 which
mandatorily includes personal details of all passengers, the country of origin and destination as well as the time of the journey.
Focusing still on the transportation stage, apart from customs and migration officers, the involvement of diplomatic personnel has been also detected in terms of
98 Rusev (n 27) 9. 99 Broad (n 34) 73. 100 Ibid.
101 R. Dzhekova, T. Bezlov, ‘Study on Anti-corruption Measures in EU Border Control’ (2012) Center for
the Study of Democracy (CSD).
102 Ibid 56.
103 Rusev (n 27) 10. 104 Ibid.
105 For more details on PNR, see
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facilitating transnational human trafficking activities.106 In contrast to other public
officials, diplomats enjoy the privilege of immunity which renders their prosecution and conviction even more challenging. Ιn many cases involving direct participation or complicity of diplomats in acts of trafficking, their victims end up being completely dependent on them, having their passports and visas withdrawn while being threatened with expulsion as illegal aliens.107 In fact, consular officers and embassy staff have
several times been directly involved in trafficking activities. Indicatively, it is estimated that in 2007 at least four members of the Indian Parliament were alleged to have actively participated in human trafficking operations.108 One of them, Mr. Babubhai Katara,
tried to benefit from his diplomatic status, as he was taken into custody for attempting to smuggle a woman and a young boy posing as his wife and son through airport security to board a flight from India to Canada.109
Moving at this point to the last stage of exploitation, after having arrived in the destination country, victims are distributed to a variety of labor industries. As a result, different actors are likely to interact with the trafficking chain. In terms of sex trafficking, public officials have been identified to promote human trafficking activities. More particularly, as facilitators and protectors of traffickers, police officials may receive privileges or free services from the owners of businesses involved, to exploit the trafficked victims.110 Indeed, according to a study concerning human
trafficking and corruption in Southeastern Europe, local police officers as well as political authorities may provide protection to pubs and bars in exchange for money or sexual services, while they may inform bar owners in advance of official raids and checks.111
106 IBA Report (2016) (n 74) 35. 107 Nagle (n 34) 99.
108 ‘BJP MP to be expelled from LS for human trafficking’ The Economic Times (21 October 2008)
available at: <https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/politics-and-nation/bjp-mp-to-be-expelled-from-ls-for-human-trafficking/articleshow/3621437.cms>
109 Sandeep Unnithan, Saurabh Shukla, ‘The VIP Smugglers’ India Today (May 7 2007), available at
<https://www.indiatoday.in/magazine/nation/story/20070507-human-trafficking-racket-exposed-748459-2007-05-07>.
110 Malinvisa Sakdiyakorn, Sutthana Vichitrananda, ‘Corruption, Human Trafficking and Human Rights:
The Case of Labor and Sex Trafficking in Thailand’, written on behalf of Transparency Thailand, 11.
111 Programme against Corruption and Organized Crime in South-Eastern Europe (PACO) ‘Trafficking in
human beings and corruption’ (2002) Report on the regional seminar, Portoroz Slovenia, 19-22/6-2002, 10.
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It has been also noted that police departments in charge of registering foreign citizens are believed to sometimes accept bribes to issue work and residence permits for foreign ‘dancers’ as well as to inform traffickers on the content of relevant investigations so that they avoid arrest, for example by deporting victims before they get involved in the criminal justice process.112 However, even if the trafficking chain
breaks, there are still reports that law enforcement agents have contributed to the re-victimization of ex trafficked persons on the basis of information provided by traffickers they collaborated with in the past.113 Such incidents of re-victimization have
occurred in Philippine embassies in the Middle East, where officials refused to protect trafficked victims of human trafficking, withheld their wages and re-trafficked them into domestic servitude while coercing them into sexual acts as an exchange for government protection.114
Beyond the negative influence of human trafficking – related corruption in the functioning of law enforcement mechanisms, the integrity of criminal justice systems may be severely affected as well, because members of the judiciary engage in corrupt practices. In this regard, there is widespread concern that incidents of bribery of judicial officers, prosecutors and other actors involved in the judicial process influence decision-making up to a large extent.115 In this context, it is possible that human
trafficking investigations get halted or that corrupt officials exert influence in order to interfere with the prosecution of trafficking cases. According to the 2013 TIP Report, it is alleged that some Peruvian prosecutors accepted bribes from traffickers with the purpose of not prosecuting cases concerning child sex trafficking as well as in order to falsify inculpating victim statements.116
However, even when trafficking suspects end up being prosecuted and cases result in adjudication and conviction, there is the possibility that judges impose less severe sentences to traffickers after having been bribed. This phenomenon has been repeatedly observed in Moldova, where judges often reduce convicted traffickers’
112 Ibid. 113 Ibid.
114 USDS, TIP Report (2014), 315.
115 International Bar Association, ‘The International Bar Association Judicial Integrity Initiative: Judicial
Systems and Corruption’ May 2006, available at
<https://www.ibanet.org/Legal_Projects_Team/judicialintegrityinitiative.aspx>.
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sentences in exchange of pecuniary gain,117 while the former President of Cambodia’s
Court of Appeal is accused of having accepted a sum amounting to US$30,000 for the sake of sex traffickers’ release.118 In addition, a rather extreme case of judiciary’s
collusion with human trafficking networks is that of a judge in the Philippines119 who
discussed with trafficking gangs the issue of a complaint that he was about to file against individuals who had previously rescued several underage women kept in a man’s house for trafficking purposes. The judge in question has been accused and found guilty of corruption, since he intended to file false charges against the people who conducted the rescue operation with the aim of supporting human trafficking organizations as well as due to the fact that his actions would result in re-victimizing the already trafficked individuals.120
By studying the aforementioned examples, the following remarks can be made. Firstly, it becomes clear that human trafficking related corruption interferes with a wide range of officials, stretching from customs officers to judges or prosecutors. At the same time, in most cases corrupt behavior is demonstrated in the course of officials’ duties, when for instance police officers benefit from services offered by sex establishments instead of monitoring their function. As a consequence, victims end up being unable to seek state aid owing to the fact that corrupt public officials, thus state representatives, act against their interests. It becomes clear therefore that widespread corruption among public officials, apart from fueling human trafficking considerably, contributes further to the creation of a vicious circle of illegality and impunity.
3.3. Recommendations to Break the Chain between Human
Trafficking and Corruption
It follows from the above that corruption in the public sector is an essential compound of human trafficking activities. As a consequence, according to the Council of Europe,
117 USDS, TIP Report (2011) 260-261. 118 USDS, TIP Report (2010) 103.
119 Alejandro Gutierrez, PCI Antonio Ricafort, SPO4 Richardo G. Ong, and SPO1 Arnulfo Medenilla vs.
Judge Godofredo G. Hernandez, UNODC Human Trafficking Case Law Database, available at:
<https://sherloc.unodc.org/cld/case-law-doc/traffickingpersonscrimetype/phl/2007/psupt._alejandro_gutierrez_pci_antonio_ricafort_spo4_ri chardo_g._ong_and_spo1_arnulfo_medenilla_vs._judge_godofredo_g._hernandez.html>.
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investigations and prosecutions of human trafficking should be conducted jointly with investigations into corruption and financing of suspects.121
In fact, curbing corruption to reduce its negative effect on human trafficking can be achieved in various ways. Firstly, there is high need to invest in raising awareness and providing training as well as adequate education to public officials on the issue of human trafficking, in order to deter them from engaging in corrupt behavior. 122 These
measures amount to a priority in accordance with the Palermo Protocol that urges State parties to ‘undertake measures, such as research, information and mass media campaigns’123 and to ‘adopt or strengthen legislative or other measures, such as
educational, social, or cultural measures.’124
In this regard, both members of the judiciary and law enforcement agents, for example police officers, should be subject to intensive training125 so as to be able to
implement anti-human trafficking provisions more effectively and to realize the severe impact of corrupt behavior on human trafficking, even when it is demonstrated in a passive way. For instance, in the Amsterdam Police Department, members of the anti- human trafficking unit are required to succeed in three hour examinations over a course of a 265-hour training program on policing of the sex industry,126 asit is found that
police officers’ corrupt behavior relates to a large extent to sex trafficking.127
International128 and national129 reporting mechanisms collecting and analyzing
quantitative and qualitative data on human trafficking may play a crucial role in raising awareness as well.130
The adoption of preventive measures addressed to potential victims of human trafficking plays an equally crucial role , in the sense of notifying communities that
121 PACO Report (n 111) 18-19. 122 Nagle (n 34) 109.
123 Palermo Protocol, Art. 9(2). 124 Palermo Protocol, Art. 9(5). 125 Nagle (n 34) 110.
126 National Rapporteur on Trafficking in Human Beings and Sexual Violence against Children,
‘Trafficking in Human Beings: Ninth Report of the Dutch National Rapporteur’ (2014) 81.
127 IBA Report (2016) (n 74) 39.
128 See mechanisms of CEDAW and CRC.
129 For example, in Sweden a government ministry (National Police Board) functions as a national
rapporteur, while the Dutch rapporteur on human trafficking is independent and extra-governmental.
130 Virginia M. Kendall, ‘Greasing the Palm: An Argument for an Increased Focus on Public Corruption
27
even the slightest indicators of corruption, for instance during a legitimate migration journey, should be directly linked to the action of human trafficking gangs.131 In this
way, authorities can stay alert and capable of detecting suspicious movements to and from borders more effectively.
The next important pillar in the joint fight against human trafficking and corruption relates to the increase of transparency and accountability in the public sector.132 In this context, States are expected to establish specific rules of conduct for
all public officials potentially involved in the human trafficking chain as mentioned in the previous section (border guards, customs officials, police officers, diplomatic personnel, criminal justice actors, authorities in charge for the issuance of visas and work licenses).133 In case that such codes of behavior already exist, they should be
sufficiently updated134 and the continuing supervision of officials, while exercising
their duties should be ensured. Imposing deterrent punishment for officials wishing to engage in corrupt practices must be a priority as well.135 For instance, the threat of being
exposed to both criminal sentences and at least temporary suspension from service is likely to prevent public officials from getting involved in criminal activities.136
Similarly, it is of fundamental importance that public officials’ immunity is lifted in case that there are strong indications that they have committed or participated as accomplices in the perpetration of a criminal offence.137
Moreover, it is vital that national laws integrate anti-corruption and anti-human trafficking legislation, along with aligning domestic legislation with international standards.138 In this regard, attention should be paid to the impact of corruption on
131 OECD 2015 (n 33) 30. 132 PACO Report (n 111) 19. 133 OECD 2015 (n 33) 27. 134 Ibid. 135 Nagle (n 34) 110.
136 See for example the Greek Code of Conduct for Civil Servants, including impeachment from service
in case of criminal conviction, in article 104, para 1(a), according to which: ’If there are reasons of public interest, an official may be placed on leave, if a) criminal proceedings have been brought against him/her for an offense which may result to the suspension from the service. Especially for the offense of breach of duty of office, the official may be put on leave if he or she has been referred to the Court for this offense.’ Available at:
<https://www.ypes.gr/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/20150721_kodikas_katastasis_dimosion_ypallilon.pdf>.
137 OECD 2015 (n 33) 30. 138 IBA Report (2016) (n 74) 40.
