On this year’s World Day Against Trafficking in Persons, I stressed the need for a profound change in States’ approaches to migration and trafficking, in order to promote the long-term social inclusion of survivors. The increasing criminalisation of migrants as well as NGOs and individuals providing humanitarian aid, and the adoption of restrictive and xenophobic migration policies are both detrimental to anti-trafficking efforts and incompatible with the objective of the social inclusion of survivors. On the contrary, an approach that empowers survivors is one that provides for access to effective remedies, compensation, residency status, restitution, family reunification, restoration of employment, non-punishment, and guarantees of non-repetition. Only this latter approach is truly victim-centered and human rights-based, allowing survivors not only to be effectively included in society, but also to actively contribute to the prevention of re-trafficking and to the dismantling of criminal networks.
My full statement is available here.