Government of Romania holds “Common Challenges and New perspectives in Fighting Trafficking in Persons” Conference

BUCHAREST, ROMANIA – The Government of Romania, through the Department for Community Social Responsibility and Vulnerable Groups, the Senate of Romania and IJM organized the international conference “Common Challenges and New Perspectives in Fighting Trafficking in Persons”.

The conference analyzed the challenges and specific measures taken at the European level to combat the risks related to cross-border and national human trafficking, as well as among displaced population from Ukraine.

The high-level meeting held in Bucharest built a platform for dialogue and collaboration between Romanian institutions, European institutions and representatives of civil society, gathered around a common objective: combating cross-border human trafficking and finding solutions to incriminate the demand and combat human trafficking facilitated by technology.

As the European Commission is preparing a new Directive on the fight against human trafficking, the Conference aimed to identify real and specific options regarding:

1. Regulating and strengthening the mechanisms for identification, accountability and incrimination of clients who use the services of victims of human trafficking;
2. Regulation and intervention in situations of recruitment and exploitation of victims in the online environment;
3. Preventing and combating human trafficking in the context of the Ukrainian refugee crisis.

In fact, Romania is one of the first member states of the European Union to introduce an article in the Penal Code regarding clients of the services of victims of human trafficking and has the first precedents of convictions in Europe.

At the Conference, Mr. Nicolae Ionel Ciucă, Prime Minister of Romania, shared,

“It is imperative to keep our firm commitment to fight against this scourge and to have the ability, availability and courage to address this problem on all three levels: prevention, combat and protection of victims.”

“I don’t think there has been a clearer and stronger moment for Romania than this to assume the commitment at the highest level of the Executive to combat human trafficking. The coordination of the anti-trafficking fight has been at the level of the Prime Minister’s Chancellery for more than two years, and the results are tangible: we have a new mechanism for identifying and referring victims, hearing rooms for child victims throughout the country, a dedicated section for prosecutors specialized in cases of human trafficking and the most efficient computer forensics system at the level of the Romanian Police,” stated Mădălina Turza, State Councillor, National Anti-Trafficking Coordinator.

“Human trafficking can be found in all modern societies, whether we are talking about Romania or other Western states. Therefore, coordinating our efforts is the only scenario that makes us stronger, braver, more informed and united, so that human trafficking networks themselves become vulnerable. No government can deal with human trafficking alone. We all have a responsibility in this regard,” said Alina Gorghiu, President, Senate of Romania.

Highly encouraged by the committed effort of the Romanian government in combatting human trafficking, Gary Haugen, CEO of IJM remarked at the Conference in the Romanian Parliament,

“Romania has provided encouraging examples to follow in fighting human trafficking, both at national level and European cross-border level. We know that Romanian authorities are committed to this effort. But to succeed, we need a sustained effort of cooperation and coordination between countries in Europe.”

IJM has been working closely with the Romanian authorities to detect victims of human trafficking, to support and assist them during trials. We also work with the authorities to bring traffickers to justice and provide victims with high-quality healing and recovery support. We look forward to seeing more countries prioritizing their commitment to combatting human trafficking.