Children are taken through the system until they move from being victims to being the accused
In the context of World Day Against Trafficking in Persons, IC La Strada Moldova points out how gravely compromised the response of the national anti-trafficking system is.
This day was established 7 years ago by the General Assembly of the United Nations, in order to increase the level of awareness around the situation of the victims of human trafficking and to promote the protection of their rights. In this regard, the Republic of Moldova can’t do anything but publicly admit the failure to protect its children from the gravest form of exploitation.
As a representative for underage beneficiaries of the Issues Affecting Children Program, La Strada Moldova repeatedly pointed out the risks and the regress indicators identified in the activity of criminal investigation bodies and the child protection system. We reiterated that the system deficiencies risk to become a normal approach when it comes to crimes related to human trafficking and other related crimes. But, unfortunately, no subsequent remediation actions were taken in regard to these systemic shortcomings.
We are back to the levels of year 2000. The anti-trafficking efforts today are based on closed cases referring to underage children who we couldn’t or didn’t want to save and reintegrate into society when it was still possible. On the contrary, these children have been taken through the system, called to present in front of the criminal investigation body as many times as necessary to give testimonies as witnesses or victims of the crimes, up to the point when it was easier and more convenient to blame them for these crimes, says Ana REVENCO, Executive Director of IC La Strada Moldova.
The national practice of counteracting trafficking in human beings is an open defiance of international human rights principles and norms.
The faulty practice of punishing the victims of trafficking for crimes committed because of their exploitation is a serious breach of their legal right guaranteed by international standards and national legislation. We refer to the defying of the “non-punishment principle” transposed in international reference provisions in the field of human rights, such as the Council of Europe Conventions on Action against Trafficking in Human Beings, the Directives of the European Parliament and EU Council, the principles and recommendations adopted by the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights. These provisions can also be found in national legislation, which would imply that by holding children accountable for crimes which they suffered from, the Republic of Moldova defies the provisions of the legal framework. For example, the special law no. 241 from 20.10.2015 regarding the prevention and combating of trafficking in human beings, art. 32 states that ‘The victim of human trafficking is acquitted, based on the conditions of the legislation in force, of criminal, contraventional or civil liability for the actions committed while in the status of victim, if these actions fall under the scope of the Criminal Code, Contraventional Code or Civil Code of the Republic of Moldova”.
There are no social rehabilitation programs for children-victims of trafficking
The national legal system fails in its tasks to identify trafficking crimes, investigate them and hold accountable the people responsible for committing these illegal actions. The way these cases are investigated and managed doesn’t respect at all the principle of restorative justice for children. The minors who are injured parties in cases of trafficking end up in penitentiary for actions of sexual exploitation of other minors. Because they themselves were exploited for a long time, they have come to normalise sexual services, these minors involve other children into the chain of exploitation or they do it at the request of their trafficker. In the last 2 years alone, our country classified at least 5 underage girls as suspects in cases of trafficking of children, having recruited and sexually exploited other minors - some of them being currently under arrest. And although IC La Strada requested the competent bodies to provide data about the number of criminal cases regarding trafficking of children where the suspect is underage, we never received a response, and were told that such data doesn’t exist.
It is certain that no underage victims assisted by the IC La Strada in the past 5 years were ever offered a social rehabilitation and reintegration program, so that the victim could overcome the trauma, develop resilience abilities and go back to a normal life. All these minors, with no exceptions, have gone back on the streets to continue to provide sexual services in order to earn a living, a great majority of them were soon convicted of crimes in which they appeared as victims at an earlier age. Because, however vocal the statements coming from our authorities to external partners are, in the Republic of Moldova, there are still no social rehabilitation programs for children-victims of trafficking in human beings.