In the light of the Commission’s intention to modernise the current anti-trafficking framework: a common victim identification system?

Abstract

As witnessed by Directive 2011/36/EU on preventing and combating trafficking in human beings and protecting its victims, the identification of victims has never been of great importance to the European Union or its Member States, who have prioritised security concerns at the expense of a human rights approach towards trafficked victims. The directive leaves the choice of victim identification measures to the Member States, resulting in insufficient compliance with human rights obligations. If victims of human trafficking are not identified, they will not access any protection or assistance systems and they will remain in a situation of violation of their rights. They may even be deported or fall back into the hands of traffickers. In view of the European Commission's intention to reformulate the current framework, this article proposes a new common EU-wide victim identification system, a mechanism capable of detecting victims who are potentially vulnerable to exploitation, especially in highly sensitive locations, such as refugee camps, border crossing points or asylum centres. To this end, the weaknesses of the current legal framework will be pointed out, and it will be analysed to what extent International Human Rights Law obligations can contribute to the creation of this new system.