Following the money: a new paper by OSCE

OSCE Vienna

Rome/Vienna [ENA] Massive movements of people generated by on-going conflicts, widespread instability and a lack of economic opportunity in neighboring regions are reaching since years the OSCE region. These migration flows consist of refugees and economic migrants who are awfully exposed to exploitation and human trafficking - around 10,000 migrant children are missing in Europe, and feared to have been trafficked (Source: EUROPOL).

The OSCE Office for the Special Representative and Co-ordinator for Combating Trafficking in Human Beings will present a paper entitled: “Following the money: Compendium of resources and Step-by-step Guide to Financial Investigations Into trafficking in Human Beings”, on 11 November, 09:30 to 14:00, Hofburg in Vienna. After analysing all the available resources, “Following the money” classifies more than 600 indicators and typologies of trafficking in human beings (THB) and provides a step-by-step guide describing a list of practical steps to follow in order to start successful financial investigations into THB, thus providing a unique toolkit for practitioners from both the public and private sectors.

The paper aims at enhancing the ability of interested participating States and Partners for Co-operation to successfully investigate/prosecute human trafficking and to promptly identify victims of trafficking in human beings (THB) along migration routes. Despite participating States’ efforts to struggle against trafficking in human beings (THB) in the last decade, there are still significant inadequacies with regard to the identification of trafficked victims, criminal and financial investigation into human trafficking, as well as prosecution of traffickers throughout the OSCE region. These gaps have further enlarged due to the migration and refugee crisis which unsettles many OSCE participating States and Partners for Co-operation.

It’s more and more important to provide a step-by step guide to participating States on how to combat human trafficking. Two panels of experts will present the paper and discuss the role of financial investigations in combating THB. The event will feature some of the leading global experts on financial aspects of human trafficking, including: Valiant Richey, OSCE Special Representative and Co-ordinator for Combating trafficking in Human Beings, James Cockayne, Director of the Centre for Policy Research at United Nation University, Secretariat, Financial Sector Commission on Modern Slavery and Human trafficking, and Timea Nagy Payne, Financial Sector Commissioner and a human trafficking survivor.