Monitoring Report: Human Trafficking in Germany
Introduction
The Council of Europe Convention on Action against Trafficking in Human Beings and the EU Anti-Trafficking Directive on Preventing and Combating Trafficking in Human Beings and Protecting its Victims not only place an obligation on Germany to ensure the effective prosecution and prevention of human trafficking but also require it to take steps to protect and support its victims. For instance, victims have a right to assistance adequate to ensure their subsistence, to safe accommodation and to compensation. The Federal Government has tasked the German Institute for Human Rights with monitoring (and reporting on) the implementation of these two legal instruments (abbreviated as the CoE AntiTrafficking Convention and the EU Anti-Trafficking Directive, respectively, below). The monitoring report is aimed at policymakers, public administration and civil society bodies, academia and the interested public. A periodic report will be issued at two-year intervals.
Trafficking in human beings involves serious human rights violations. For the purpose of exploitation, victims of trafficking are subject to severe restrictions of their self-determination and often suffer grave violations of other fundamental human rights. Among the forms of exploitation are the exploitation of the prostitution of others or other forms of sexual exploitation, forced labour or services, (for instance as care workers, in agriculture, the meat-processing industry or in the construction industry) including begging or the exploitation of criminal activities or the removal of organs. On July 14 2024, an amendment to the Anti-Trafficking Directive came into force. According to the amendment, human trafficking also includes the exploitation of surrogacy as well as forced marriage and illegal adoption.
Germany has an obligation under the CoE Anti-Trafficking Convention and the EU Anti-Trafficking Directive to prevent and combat human trafficking in all its forms of exploitation.
The Monitoring Report: Human Trafficking in Germany brings the available data from federal and Länder (federal state) authorities, specialised counselling centres (often abbreviated as SCCs below), other counselling centres and other civil society organisations together in one publication for the first time. The report contains data relating to victims of all forms of exploitation for all federal states as well as information on the measures adopted to implement the CoE Anti-Trafficking Convention and the EU Anti-Trafficking Directive in Germany during the 2020-2022 period and also presents more recent developments in a few selected areas. The collection of data on a regular basis will enable future monitoring reports to depict developments in the human trafficking situation in Germany and to draw attention to areas where action is needed.