Victims of Human Trafficking
Blog by Carolina P.
In this blog I will talk about victims of human trafficking. For this topic, I will compare Finland with my home country Austria. First, I would like to say that it was not easy to find up-to-date sources on this topic, as most of them are from 2021. Nevertheless, I wanted to make this comparison to best of my ability. To begin with, I asked myself the following question, which I would like to answer during this blog: How many victims of human trafficking are there in Finland?
Having only lived here for a few months, I’m not sure whether I have the right picture of this country – namely that there is very little of human trafficking here and that the social system here is so good that human trafficking is prevented as much as possible (but that’s what I was thinking so far). My initial impression was that human trafficking occurs more frequently in Austria. Before I made any country comparison, I first wanted to find out what the exact definition of human trafficking is: Human trafficking is a “form of modern slavery that involves the illegal transportation of persons by force or deception for the purpose of labour, sexual exploitation, or activities in which others benefit financially.” (Britannica 2023). Worldwide, 1,000,000 people (Britannica 2023) are affected by human trafficking every year. However, most victims of human trafficking are in the United States of America.
After further research, I found out, that human trafficking is classified into three categories by the US, which are: “sex trafficking, labour trafficking, and organ harvesting” (Britannica 2023).
After a lot of research on human trafficking in Austria, I found figures from 2022 showing that 104 people were victims of human trafficking. Of these, 71 were men and 33 women. Most of them came from third-world countries like India or Iraq. These were victims of labour trafficking. In addition, there were 26 victims of human trafficking for the purpose of prostitution, all of whom were women. Some of these female victims were still minors. (see Wien.at 2023)
After researching this topic, I was shocked to learn that human trafficking for the purpose of prostitution with minors actually exists. Of course, this is to be expected, but it was still a big shock for me. Overall, I found it interesting that there are significantly more male victims of human trafficking. I had expected that there would also be significantly more victims of prostitution trafficking.
Finally, I asked myself what measures are in place to prevent human trafficking in Austria as far as possible. This is how I came across “Task Force” (Bundesministerium für Europa, Integration und Äußeres, p. 18). This is an Austrian initiative against human trafficking and is headed by the Federal Ministry for Europe, Integration and Foreign Affairs. There are three different working groups for: Child Trafficking, Prostitution and Labour Exploitation. (see Bundesministerium für Europa, Integration und Äußeres, p. 18-19).
Now I would like to talk about human trafficking and Finland. I only found information from 2020. Officially, 123 people were trafficked in that year. Of these, 78 were forced labourers. These were mainly due to cleaning work, work in restaurants, construction, seasonal work, and agriculture. 15 people were victims of sexual exploitation, mainly forced prostitution. 23 people were victims of forced marriage. In total, however, there were 244 potential but not official victims of human trafficking in 2020. However, there were also 50 minors who were also potential victims of human trafficking. (see Finnish Immigration Service 2021).
Now I asked myself again what help the victims receive in Finland. During my research, I came across the reception centre for human trafficking called “Joutseno”. In the meantime, 1257 potential victims of human trafficking have been assisted here (see Finnish Immigration Service 2021).
All in all, I would say that victims of human trafficking certainly get good help in both countries. I still find it shocking how many victims there are, because I would have expected there to be fewer.
During the writing process of this blog, I was thinking about how I personally can do something against human trafficking and some thoughts came up that I want to share with you: First, I could join or donate money to “Task Force”, also I could just really stay attentive and keep attention to alarming signs if I am in public.
Sources
Bundesministerium für Europa, Integration und Äußeres. Task Force Menschenhandel.
Broschüre zu Menschenhandel, 18-19. https://www.bmeia.gv.at/fileadmin/user_upload/Zentrale/Aussenpolitik/Menschenrechte/Broschuere_zu_Menschenhandel.pdf
Finnish Immigration Service. (2021, January 27.). The number of human trafficking victims in Finland has increased. https://migri.fi/en/-/the-number-of-human-trafficking-victims-in-finland-has-increased#
Menschenhandel: 104 Opfer in Österreich im Vorjahr. (2023, April 26). Vienna.at.
https://www.vienna.at/menschenhandel-104-opfer-in-osterreich-im-vorjahr/8043145
Romero, K. (2019, January 16). What do I need to know about human trafficking and why?.
WAVnet. https://vawnet.org/news/what-do-i-need-know-about-human-trafficking-and-why
Steverson, L. A. and Wooditch. Alese C. (2023, November 11). Human trafficking. Encyclopedia Britannica. https://www.britannica.com/topic/human-trafficking
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