Some 50 representatives of Maltese government agencies and civil society organisations met in Valletta on 10 October 2023 to discuss progress made in the implementation of the Council of Europe Anti-Trafficking Convention, on the basis of the third evaluation report issued by the Group of Experts on Action against Trafficking in Human Beings (GRETA) and the related Committee of the Parties’ recommendation.
The meeting was opened by Mr Michael Camilleri, Director of the Human Rights Directorate of the Ministry for Home Affairs, Security, Reforms and Equality, and Dr Lynn Chircop Faure, Senior Manager in the same Directorate, who presented the work carried out on implementing the recommendations contained in GRETA’s report.
The discussions focused on trafficking victims’ access to justice and effective remedies, investigations into human trafficking offences (including financial investigations and use of special investigative techniques) and proactive identification of victims of human trafficking.
“To protect and assist trafficking victims, including children, it is of paramount importance to identify them correctly and to have a fully functioning National Referral Mechanism which is based on reliable data collection”, underlined Mr Kevin Hyland, former member of GRETA and rapporteur for the third evaluation of Malta, who moderated the round-table discussions.
Malta is expected to report to the Committee of the Parties to the Convention on the measures taken to comply with the recommendation by 17 December 2023.
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