At a meeting held on 8 July 2024, Malta’s Anti-Human Trafficking Inter-Ministerial Committee and Human Trafficking Monitoring Committee adopted the country’s first National Anti-Trafficking Strategy, with an accompanying Action Plan. The process will be concluded with the final adoption of the Strategy by the Cabinet of Ministers and its launch on 29 July 2024.

In an opening address, Jonathan Vassallo, Chairperson of the Human Trafficking Monitoring Committee and Permanent Secretary at the Ministry for European Funds, Equality, Reforms and Social Dialogue, affirmed Malta’s commitment to combatting trafficking in human beings and noted the importance of consultations with all relevant stakeholders to ensure ownership of the first National Anti-Trafficking Strategy.  Petya Nestorova, Executive Secretary of the Council of Europe Convention on Action against Trafficking in Human Beings, underlined that the Strategy would equip Malta with more effective tools to prevent human trafficking, protect the rights of victims, and ensure the punishment of offenders, while paying attention to new trends and challenges.

During the meeting, a roadmap to strengthen national co-ordination of anti-trafficking action and co-ordination guidelines were also discussed.

The Human Rights Initiatives Unit within the Human Rights Directorate of the Ministry for European Funds, Equality, Reforms and Social Dialogue also launched an awareness-raising campaign focusing on the United Nations Blue Heart theme “Leave No Child Behind”.

This activity was carried out in the framework of the Project “Supporting Malta in the design and implementation of a new anti-trafficking strategy”, which aims to contribute to the ongoing policy reform for combating trafficking in human beings in Malta. The project is co-funded by the European Union via the Technical Support Instrument, and implemented by the Council of Europe, in co-operation with the European Commission.