Growing number of trafficking victims in Victim Support Finland’s services
The number of victims of human trafficking and labour exploitation have grown rapidly in VS Finland’s services. In the first six months of this year there were over 220 clients of the mentioned crime groups. In 2018, the total number was 163, in 2017 it was 94 and in 2016 32. The current clients represent 38 nationalities and the majority of them are men. Over 200 of the clients had been victimised in Finland. The labour exploitation cases relate mostly to the following fields: restaurant work, cleaning, construction and agriculture. VS Finland has been actively advocating for the improvement of the rights and services for these victims.
For further information, see VS Finland’s press release of 30.7.19 (in Finnish):
New Government proposes several improvements to victims’ rights
The new Government of Finland was appointed in early June. Prime Minister Antti Rinne’s Government has proposed many improvements to victims’ rights and services in its Government Programme. For example, vulnerable victims should have better access to justice, the protection provided by restraining orders should be strengthened, access to compensations should be improved, the number of shelters should be raised and more attention should be paid to the rights and services of victims of gender based violence and child victims. Also the access of victims of human trafficking to the governmental assistance system should be improved so that access would not rely on the criminal process. The Government also proposes to set up a specialised police unit to investigate trafficking crimes. NGOs working with crime victims have commended the Programme but many have raised doubts of the possibilities to practically implement the very many ideas listed in the Programme.
The Government Programme.