Addressing highly complex, often invisible crimes in a targeted way also requires a highly coordinated approach. As human trafficking and the online sexual exploitation of children increasingly become lucrative enterprises for the criminal syndicates globally and even more challenging to track, the best way to tackle them begins with having the right data.
The International Centre for Migration Policy Development (ICMPD) through the EU-funded HEROES project and its consortium partners, has developed a manual¹ with new tools and strategies to detect and protect victims of human trafficking (THB), child sexual abuse, and child sexual exploitation (CSA/E). It uses data sets and insights collected through extensive ground research for its three key pillars that focus on preventing, investigating, and providing assistance to the victims and survivors.
Through sets of indicators tailored to critical social and economic sectors, the manual allows responders to track signs of potential victims and report or refer them onward to appropriate support services. The manual is intended for law enforcement agents, labour inspectors, frontline responders, non-governmental organisations, and health and education professionals who, in their daily work, could come in contact with potential and actual victims. It is based on real experiences from Bangladesh, Colombia, Spain, and the United Kingdom, focusing on the most common exploiters’ modus operandi, the most urgent issues to be tackled, and the most recently identified trends within technology-facilitated exploitation and abuse.
Growing access to information and communication technologies, which should be an opportunity for inter-connectedness and information exchange, has also provided a space for old problems to take new forms. Inadvertently it has now exposed our children to online sexual exploitation and abuse, and facilitated trafficking of human beings – making it a complex, trans-border crimesays Michael Spindelegger, ICMPD Director-General
Making data work
The manual emanated from a study that took a comparative look of varying definitions (and degrees) of human trafficking and child online sexual abuse and exploitation, analysis of ongoing efforts and the government agencies involved, and the challenges they face(d). It also looked at the different impacts of internet penetration rates, risks to exposure, and institutions’ best-practices.
The second phase of the study took a close look at the four countries’ socio-political-economic situations and judicial contexts, the legal and institutional characteristics of their response and enforcement processes, indicators and tools for early identification of cases (and of perpetrators), and the varying methodologies of their first-line responders.
The study, meanwhile, has shown that in Bangladesh, trafficking mostly involves labour exploitation of migrant women domestic workers; while in Spain, [migrant] women are trafficked for forced sex work. There is also ongoing proliferation of sexually exploitative content of children online in the country. In Colombia children are exploited (and/or trafficked) through the tourism sector, including migrants. Cases of human trafficking in the United Kingdom take place in the context of drug [trafficking], and ‘cuckooing’ – in which criminal groups take over the home of a vulnerable person to deal or store drugs, facilitate sex work, or to financially abuse the tenant.
These analyses then provide the backbone of designing the manual, which includes instructions for first-line responders on using specific indicators to detect potential cases; and context-specific questions to ask potential victims and cross-identifying perpetrators.
Far-reaching impact
Human trafficking and online sexual abuse and exploitation of children are global phenomena; and may also overlap or occur simultaneously in many cases. Previously, assisting victims was often limited by the lack of data and coordination.
The study has now paved the way to various online programmes to prevent these crimes; enhanced e-learning curricula on sexual abuse, assault, online solicitation, production, and distribution of abusive materials on children. It also led to legal and ethical analyses of their Special Investigative Methods, allowing HEROES partners worldwide to operationalise and comply with different legal systems.
The consortium also brings together the expertise, experiences, and unique perspectives of psychologists, sociologists, lawyers, social workers, health care workers, software developers, and experts in cyber-security and forensics from across the world – all with the shared goal to fight human trafficking and child sexual abuse online. For much of the research phase, their insights were collected through qualitative interviews.
In the framework of the HEROES project, ICMPD has worked with partners from law enforcement agencies² across 17 countries³ in Europe, Asia, and South America; universities⁴, tech and research enterprises⁵; and NGOs⁶.
This study has enabled our partners to develop technical and legal tools that prevent, investigate, and assist victims and keep up with the pace at which criminals misuse our new technologies. ICMPD is proud to be part of this partnership that keeps victims and survivors at the heart of the projectMr Spindelegger adds
In putting victims and survivors at the heart of the project design and backed by first-hand insights from frontline responders who have worked in the field, the HEROES project thus operationalises data to harmonise legal frameworks and the unique contexts in affected countries; and utilises technologies to bridge the communication and coordination divides among key stakeholders. It also improves how support and assistance are provided to victims, law enforcement investigations, and the prevention of trafficking and online sexual abuse and exploitation – particularly of children.
By the end of its implementation cycle in December 2024, the HEROES Project will have developed eight new web applications and tools to beef up the detection, reporting, and referral capacities of law enforcement agencies, NGOs, first-responders – event citizens themselves.
The end-goal of the manual is simple: to address these complex domestic and cross-border crimes by empowering the professionals who are best positioned in the community to respond, prevent, and report cases; to refer and assist victims and survivors of these crimes; and to investigate and punish the perpetrators. Indeed, the HEROES project is making heroes out of everyone.
1 The manual’s authors include Melita Gruevska-Graham, Madalina Lepsa-Rogoz, Ivanka Hainzl, Elena Petreska, and Edgar Federzoni dos Santos of ICMPD; Claudia Álvarez Conde, Raquel Barras Tejudo, and Carlos Brito Siso from UCM; Jana Dilger of TRI, Ishrat Shamim of CWCS-Bangladesh, and Sergio Rivera Reyes of RENACER.
2 Bulgaria’s Directorate for Combatting Organised Crime, the Brazilian Federal Police and Transit Police, the Greek Police, Latvia’s State Police of the Ministry of the Interior, the Policía Nacional (Spain), and the Secretary of State Strategic Intelligence of Uruguay.
3 Austria, Bangladesh, Belgium, Brazil, Bulgaria, Colombia, France, Greece, Ireland, Latvia, Lithuania, Peru, Portugal, Spain, Switzerland, the United Kingdom, and Uruguay
4 Universidad Complutense de Madrid, University of Kent, and the Vrije Universiteit Brussel
5 IDENER RD, the Athena Research Center (ARC), Trilateral Research, INRIA, and KEMEA
6 Centre for Women and Children Studies (CWCS, Bangladesh), the Centre for Combatting Human Trafficking and Exploitation (KOPZI, Lithuania), Apoio à Vitima (Portugal), Fundación Renacer (Colombia), the Greek Council for Refugees (GCR), the Global Initiative Against Transnational Organized Crime (GI-TOC, Peru), the Brazilian Association for the Defence of Women, Children and Youth (ASBRAD), and the International Center for Missing and Exploited Children (ICMEC, Switzerland)