Need to help victims of human trafficking has grown from year to year
Suspected cases of human trafficking have grown steadily in Finland, as awareness of the phenomenon has grown among officials, organisations and the general public. This is borne out by the fact that 52 people were accepted last year by the system of assistance for victims of human trafficking. This is almost ten times as many as in 2006, when the fledgling system and its services provided assistance to six people. A total of 20 people were accepted into the system in January–May 2012.
Run by state’s reception centres, the system of assistance for victims of human trafficking assists and protects people in suspected cases of human trafficking or similar crimes. The latter offences include aggravated pandering and job discrimination tantamount to extortion.
The director of a state’s reception centre decides on acceptance into the system and the eventual termination of assistance, upon being informed of suspected human trafficking by the police, Border Guard or other official or organisation.
Most cases work-related
A clear majority of cases (63 per cent at the moment) of people covered by the system of assistance involve suspicion of work-related exploitation. Most have been working in the restaurant, cleaning, or agriculture and horticulture sectors. Construction and domestic assistance are also viewed as high-risk sectors.
Around two thirds (27 percent at the moment) of those accepted by the system of assistance have experienced sexual exploitation. Recent years have also seen individual cases of exploitation, such as forced marriages.
The system of assistance can also provide special expertise to municipalities
The system of assistance for victims of human trafficking helps foreign nationals in particular, who are not domiciled in Finland. Foreign victims who do happen to be domiciled in Finland are assisted in accessing municipal services. On occasions, even Finnish citizens by birth have been helped by the system.
– When a case of human trafficking is suspected, practical arrangements are usually urgent: the official division of responsibilities is hardly the first thing that comes to mind. On the other hand, small municipalities in particular, which are less familiar with such issues, benefit from the system's special expertise. In such cases it is rational for us to be present, providing information on legal services or residence permit issues, affirms Jari Kähkönen Director of the Joutseno Reception Centre.
The system of assistance for victims of human trafficking is funded by the state. Municipalities are also eligible for compensation for arranging special services, from Centres for Economic Development, Transport and the Environment (ELY Centres).
Services arranged where the victim lives
Help for victims of human trafficking can include accommodation arrangements, social and health care services, legal advice and aid, safety arrangements, and other support activities that the victim may need. In practice, services are arranged where the victim lives.
– Very few victims physically move into a reception centre. In general, apartments are sought from the private rental market, refuges or with the help of various organisations. In the initial phase, support services can also be arranged with the help of the local reception centre: this is already available in Turku, Vaasa, Kristinestad and Oulu, and is being extended to other reception centres, explains Kähkönen.
System of assistance to be centralised in Joutseno
The system of assistance for victims of human trafficking cost around one million euros in 2011. Costs vary markedly, depending on the case – the greater the need for special services, such as psychiatric care, places in children's homes, protected liaison with services or residence in a safe home, the greater the costs involved.
So far, the system has been run from the Oulu and Joutseno Reception Centres: While underage victims have been cared for at Oulu, Joutseno has attended to adults, families and groups. The reception centres have now proposed that this work could be concentrated in Joutseno.
– This would save on administrative costs, since we currently pay for an overlap in two locations. It would be more rational to target funds at working with victims, rather than towards administration, states Jari Kähkönen, Director of the Joutseno Reception Centre.
More detailed statistics available online
More detailed statistics on the system of assistance for victims of human trafficking during the beginning of 2012 can be found in Finnish on the website of the Finnish Immigration Service at www.migri.fi > Tilastot > Vastaanottotilastot.
Further information for the media
Jari Kähkönen, Director of the Joutseno Reception Centre, tel. +358 (0)71 876 0411, email: firstname.lastname@intermin.fi
Press Release of the Finnish Immigration Service and the Joutseno Reception Centre, 14.6.2012
What is human trafficking?
Human trafficking is a serious crime and breach of human rights, involving the exploitation and control of another human being. The UN's Trafficking in Persons Protocol defines the phenomenon based on three criteria, all of which must be fulfilled: act, means and purpose:
”Trafficking in Persons means the recruitment, transportation, transfer, harbouring or receipt of persons (act), by means of the threat or use of force or other forms of coercion, of abduction, of fraud, of deception, of the abuse of power or of a position of vulnerability or of the giving or receiving of payments or benefits to achieve the consent of a person having control over another person, for the purpose of exploitation (means). Exploitation shall include, at a minimum, the exploitation of the prostitution of others or other forms of sexual exploitation, forced labour or services, slavery or practices similar to slavery, servitude or the removal of organs (purpose).”
