Towards Global EU-Action against Trafficking in Human Beings

Duration: 1 May 2009 to 30 April 2010

The project “Towards Global EU-action Against Trafficking in Human Beings” was implemented by the Swedish Ministry of Justice in cooperation with IOM Vienna.

In the framework of EU action against trafficking in human beings, this project facilitated the elaboration and adoption through the Council of Ministers of an Action Oriented Paper (AOP) during the Swedish Presidency (July-December 2009). The AOP provides a consolidated framework for the EU (Member States and European Commission) containing an integrated compendium of external actions as well as cooperation measures on countering-trafficking in human beings and addressing the root causes of human trafficking in the countries of origin.

The objectives of the project were to improve cooperation and coordination of EU-action against trafficking in persons vis-à-vis third countries; enhance coherence between different policy areas in the fight against human trafficking; improve data collection and analysis of the phenomenon; develop an unambiguous approach to support and protect trafficked persons; contribute towards the adoption of an Action Oriented Paper on the external dimension of EU justice and home affairs policies on trafficking in human beings.

The partners of this project were: the Austrian Federal Ministries of the Interior, European and International Affairs and Justice, the Bureau of the Dutch Rapporteur on Trafficking in Human Beings, the Italian Ministry of the Interior, the Finnish Ministry of the Interior, the Portuguese Ministry of the Interior, and the NGO Payoke.

The project report is available here.

In March 2010 a follow up National Meeting was organized in Madrid in order to discuss the implementation of the AOP and to develop an Action Plan.

The project was co-funded by the European Commission, Directorate-General Justice, Freedom and Security, under the “Prevention of and Fight against Crime Programme 2008”.