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Lesson #44: Trafficking in Persons

Description

Material for a 6-hour lesson, part of the Basic Training Program of Macedonian Police, developed by the Police Development Unit of the OSCE Spillover Monitor Mission to Skopje.

Summary

Trafficking of women and children for sexual exploitation is a contemporary form of slavery and constitutes a serious violation of human rights. With the recent flood of migration, the political and economic insecurity in the East and the booming sex industry in the West, already established criminal networks have grown aware of the extraordinary profits to be made from trafficking individuals for sexual exploitation. Often these networks develop through smuggling of people, drugs and stolen goods across borders. Yet, the profit taken from trafficking in women surpasses that made in drug or arms smuggling, and the risk of detection and arrest is much less. Though drugs, stolen cars and arms are in themselves illegal, a human being is not, and, as many women are unwilling to openly testify against their traffickers, convictions are rare.

The goal of this lesson is to introduce students to the offence of trafficking of persons in Macedonia and the methods to assist in the prevention and detection of the crime.

At the conclusion of this lesson, students will be able to:

  1. Explain the distinctions between the human and strategic risks in the human trafficking process.
  2. Define those terms commonly associated with trafficking in human beings including ‘trafficking’, trafficker’, ‘trafficked person’, ‘exploitation’, and ‘victim’.
  3. State the differences between trafficking and the following: smuggling, prostitution and forced prostitution.
  4. Identify the three (3) types of networks responsible for trafficking in human beings.
  5. Explain the three (3) phases of the trafficking process.
  6. Outline the routes of human trafficking as they relate to trafficking of human beings in Macedonia.
  7. Explain the main elements of the offence of Trafficking in human beings under Article 418a of the Macedonian Criminal Code.
  8. Outline methods that can be used to secure evidence against criminals of trafficking.
  9. Outline and explain the procedure on how to deal with a victim of trafficking.