Portugal must improve legal assistance to victims of human trafficking, warns Council of Europe
GRETA published today the third evaluation report on the implementation in Portugal of the Council of Europe Convention on the Fight Against Trafficking in Human Beings, according to which “as authorities identified 1,152 presumed victims of trafficking in 2016-2020, most of the which are exploited in the agricultural sector”.
While focusing on “the increase in investigations, concerned about the increase in the number of employed persons and the increase in the number of employed persons and the fact that the number of employed persons is low”, GRETA is restrained in comparison with the number of people identified in “concern and ask the authorities to identify themselves” Others to ensure that human beings are tried and taken seriously cases of human beings are actively judged and led to human beings to be considered as occurred facts.
According to the document, access to compensation is “particularly difficult, and only access to compensation received”, specifying the Council of Europe that, between 2016 and 2020, only six victims obtained compensation.
For this reason, the experts were authorized to “make additional Portuguese protection to guarantee the full use of the legislation on the freezing and confiscation of access to assets, judicially supported access to judicial enforcement proceedings, supported by legal support to processes of execution executed in the execution processes. compensation claims awarded, reviewing compensation judges, and training relevant to rights, judges and judges”.
On the other hand, “GRETA once again urges the authorities to formulate in legislation the obligation not to blame trafficking victims for offenses they have been committed to committing, and guidelines for agents, officers and prosecutors on this provision”, if no report .
The group of experts recognizes, however, that progress has been made in the struggle and in Portugal’s institutional framework to combat human beings, “including the adoption of the IV Action Plan for the Prevention and Combat of Trafficking in Human Beings, the creation of a new national referral system for children, the increase in the number of multidisciplinary equipment for the support and protection of victims”.
Examining the progress made in the implementation of some of the only previous ones, the document points out that, “although it welcomes the trafficking of measures to prevent and combat the trafficking of labor exploitation fins, GRETA considers that it must continue to be adapted to the legislative framework and operational, in order to effectively prevent, detect and combat trafficking in persons in subcontracted companies”.
“In addition, GRETA, the Portuguese authorities, proceeding with the procedure, for the identification of victims of trafficking, among the Protection Authorities to point out internationally, which continues that “although the protection of Portugal has increased its capacity”. victims of trafficking over the years”, as national authorities must “ensure adequate state funding for the operation of these shelters”.
Finally, “GRETA urges the Portuguese authorities to assist that a victim of trafficking can benefit in personal practice and in a timely manner from the right to obtain a residence authority for their relationship when cooperating with authorities in investigation or criminal proceedings”.
The report continues to be a country of trafficked destination, but it is also a country of labor exploitation and transit, being mainly labor the type of common exploitation more, mainly, than mainly in the agricultural sector, GRETA points out that “number of presumed victims Portuguese has increased over the years and accounted for 23% of all victims in 2016-2018”.