The Council of Europe’s Group of Experts on Action against Trafficking in Human Beings (GRETA) has urged the Polish authorities to take further action against human trafficking, notably by effectively preventing and combating trafficking for the purpose of labour exploitation and improving the criminal justice response.
According to GRETA’s third report on Poland published today, progress has been made in some areas, including legislative changes and increased funding for victim assistance. However, a number of challenges remain.
Given the complexity of proceedings in trafficking cases, effective legal assistance and free legal aid are fundamental to enabling victims to obtain justice and assert their rights, the report notes. GRETA urges the Polish authorities to ensure that trafficking victims are appointed a lawyer to represent them in judicial and administrative proceedings, including to claim compensation.
The report notes that victims of human trafficking are often treated as witnesses of crime, not as injured parties entitled to compensation, and the number of compensation awards is very low. GRETA therefore calls on the authorities to ensure that victims of trafficking can effectively receive compensation from the offenders, as well as have access to state compensation.
Further, while guidance for law enforcement officers, prosecutors and judges on human trafficking cases has been developed, the number of human trafficking convictions, especially related to labour exploitation, is low. According to GRETA, this calls for urgent measures to ensure that human trafficking offences are proactively and promptly investigated, and lead to effective, proportionate and dissuasive sanctions.
The report also examines progress made on the implementation of previous GRETA recommendations on selected topics.
Despite continuing shortcomings in data collection, there are indications that human trafficking for the purpose of labour exploitation has been on the rise. GRETA is concerned that effective prevention and detection of cases of labour trafficking is lacking and urges the authorities to take measures in this regard, including reviewing the mandate of labour inspectors and reinforcing their human resources, as well as establishing safe reporting and effective complaint mechanisms for irregular workers.
Following the outbreak of the war in Ukraine, Poland became the main country of arrival of Ukrainian refugees. GRETA welcomes the steps taken to raise awareness of the risks of human trafficking and considers that the authorities should continue to address the vulnerabilities to trafficking of all persons fleeing the war in Ukraine, taking into account the Guidance Note issued by GRETA in this respect.
The number of identified child victims of trafficking in Poland remains low, and GRETA urges the authorities to increase the detection capacity of professionals who may come into contact with such children, and to provide safe and specialised accommodation for child victims of trafficking.
Moreover, GRETA considers that the authorities should finalise the putting into place of a National Referral Mechanism which defines the role to be played and the procedure to be followed by different stakeholders that may come into contact with victims of trafficking. The report also urges the authorities to guarantee effective assistance to victims of trafficking, including continuous access to public health.
Today’s report, which assesses for the third time Poland’s implementation of the Council of Europe Convention on Action against Trafficking in Human Beings on human trafficking, has been published together with the response of the Polish authorities.
The Group of Experts on Action against Trafficking in Human Beings (GRETA) is an independent body which monitors the way countries implement the Council of Europe Convention on Action against Trafficking in Human Beings. All member states of the Council of Europe are bound by the Convention, as well as non-member states Belarus and Israel.
