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Overview of the Situation of Human Trafficking in Germany
and the International Police Work
Heidi Rall, Federal Criminal Police Office in the subject area “trafficking for the purpose of sexual exploitation”

Introduction
I have been working now for 34 years as correction officer, and meanwhile as head of the subject area, at the Federal Criminal Police Office in the subject area “trafficking for the purpose of sexual exploitation”. I want to give you a short overview of the situation in Germany from the point of view of the police, followed by explications about international police cooperation from the German point of view.

Short overview of the situation concerning trafficking for the purpose of sexual exploitation in Germany
Since 1994 the Federal Criminal Police office annually draws a federal situation report concerning trafficking. That means all preliminary proceedings which have been closed either by Federal State Authorities or by the Federal Criminal Police Office during this period are collected and evaluated.

In 2007 a total of 454 preliminary investigations were completed. That’s an increase of about 29% compared with the figures of the previous year. In the course of preliminary proceedings for want of trafficking for the purpose of sexual exploitation there were police investigations concerning the following concomitant offences and logistic offences in connection with trafficking as there are, offences against sexual self-determination, violence offences, offences of facilitating the entry of illegal immigrants, violation of the narcotics law.

714 alleged criminals were registered, 80% of them were men. Nearly one half to the alleged criminals had German citizenship and about 10% of those with German citizenship originally had a deviant citizenship, like e.g. Poland, Kazakhstan, Russia, and Turkey.

According to the development during the last few years the majority of a total of 689 victims came from the European region. With 27% the German victims made up the highest proportion again. This number slightly increased.

Noticeable increases were registered in the number of Bulgarian, Nigerian and Hungarian victims. The reason for the increase in the number of Bulgarian victims - the number of Bulgarian alleged criminals slightly increased as well - cannot be pinpointed with certainty.

It is obviously for years that mainly young Nigerian women are smuggled by organizations from Nigeria to Germany and other European States. They get a false passport and are prepared for the smuggling by language tests and role plays.
After the smuggling they are handed over to the Nigerian female pimps usually called “Madam” Most of them were trafficked to Germany themselves and forced into prostitution. After having paid the debts (e.g. smuggling costs) they take the role of a pimp themselves. The victims who for the most part work as prostitutes in Europe have to pay high amounts to the “Madams” for the smuggling. It occurs quite often that during a ritual voodoo act the women are forced to swear an oath, to obey the “Madams” and to pay back that so-called debt. In this way they are brought into a psychic dilemma.

During some single preliminary proceedings 31 Hungarian victims were found.
But it still can’t be said that there is an increasing and constant importance of Hungary for trafficking.

The number of Czech victims of trafficking decreased in a remarkable way. Last year’s rather high rate of Czech victims was reduced to two large procedures.

One of the main difficulties during investigation is to identify the victims as such as in regard of preliminary proceedings they are of high importance. It happens quite often that the women don’t feel as victim because of their socialization, are afraid of their pimps or are ashamed and want to avoid that their families get to know that they have worked as prostitutes. In order to identify the victims it is of vital importance to get into contact with them.

In Germany it is generally permitted to practise prostitution. The rules according to this can be found in a special law. Since the eastern European expansion of the EU more and more people get the possibility of a legal stay in Germany. Prostitutes who are citizens of EU member states are allowed to work as self-employed service providers. This makes it more difficult for the police to recognise possible victims of trafficking. In Germany there is neither a key for the authorities to get access to the places where prostitution is practised nor a uniform federal regulation concerning places where prostitution is permitted.

At present mainly Bulgarian and Romanian prostitutes work as so-called self- employed service provider. Those women partly do have a very low educational level, work for real small money and without condoms. As a result of their socialization they don’t consider themselves as victims. This currently presents a problem in different German cities.

Back to the situation report
12% of the registered 689 victims of trafficking for the purpose of sexual exploitation were minor; almost one half of them were Germans. Seven people, registered as victims (1%) were younger than 14 years at the time the crime was committed, amongst them 4 with German and each one with Polish, Albanian and Turkish citizenship.
With 392 victims (57%) the main focus was on the range of age below 21 which means a slight increase compared with last year’s numbers. Here as well the portion of women with German citizenship followed by those with Romanian and Polish citizenship was rather big. The reason for the high rate of women younger than 21 can probably be found in the fact that, according to §232 I Sentence 2 StGB they can much easier be identified as victims of trafficking. The numbers do not necessarily prove that more and younger women become victims of trafficking.

Recruitment of the Victims
A little bit more than one third of the determined victims of trafficking declared that they had agreed on working as prostitute. 25% were misled concerning the real reason for entry, 16% were forced into prostitution and 15 % were professionally recruited by alleged model or artist agencies or via advertisements in newspapers.

These results mainly coincide with those of last year. The number of women, who agreed on working as prostitutes, was once again on a rather high level. According to our experiences it happened quite often that those women who agreed on working as prostitutes were misled concerning the real conditions. Quite often they were promised to find excellent opportunities to earn money and with this, of course, better life conditions. Frequently concealed was the fact that first they have to pay high debts for e.g. passport, visa, voyage, food and lodging. This is done to create a dependence on the offender. The victims are unable to do anything but to agree with the conditions and to do the job of a prostitute.

The total number of registered victims of trafficking for the purpose of sexual exploitation was 689. 143 (21%) of them were attended to by specialist help centres, while 509 (74 %) of them weren’t attended to. In 37 cases (5%), it is unknown.

International police work
In order to fight trafficking a coordinated, well structured and consequent acting of all authorities involved is necessary as the investigations are often difficult and need a lot of time. Quite often an indictment is only possible if the victims are willing to give evidence. Therefore these evidences are of utmost importance. The concerned victims need protection and professional care.

In most cases trafficking in human beings is an international offence which can only be fought against effectively, if investigations in all concerning states are done. The cooperation with all the other states is regulated by law. The cooperation within the police is usually handled via:

Interpol
Interpol: IPO International Police Organisation is the world’s oldest international cooperation frame facilitating cross-border police cooperation with at present 186 member countries.

Europol
Europol the European Police Office was set up to handle Europe-wide criminal intelligence. Europol has got a mandate to fight trafficking in human beings. A precondition for the work of Europol is that at least two member states are involved.

In the case of very urgent or important issues there is the possibility to accelerate an information exchange via special contact officers of the BKA.

The international information exchange within the police offices is task of the Federal Criminal Police Office. The police authorities in Germany have got a federalistic structure, which means there are 16 different federal state police authorities.
Each federal state has got a separate central federal criminal police department, the so-called State Office of Criminal Investigation. In addition to this there are Federal Police and Customs Authorities. Each federal state has got its own central criminal police department, the state Office of Criminal Investigation. The prosecution as well as the prevention of criminal offences and all other tasks of danger defence is primarily task of the federal states. That is why normally preliminary proceedings for suspicion of trafficking are made here.

According to the situation reports the majority of the victims of trafficking have their origin in Eastern Europe. That’s the reason for the necessity of a close cooperation with the law enforcement agencies of these countries.
But as the women are quite often circularly swapped i.e. they are brought e. g. from Germany to the Netherlands, Spain or other national states the cooperation with all concerned countries has to be effected. Due to the international character of this offence a good cooperation between the different law enforcement agencies is really necessary.

Very often investigations concerning offences against trafficking are really difficult because the crime detection strongly depends not only on police work but particularly on the so-called witness testimonies. That means that the testimonies of the concerned women are of decisive importance as the people who are accused of trafficking in human beings can only be sentenced if the women are willing to testify. But this is often quite difficult as, according to their socialisation, the women often don’t perceive themselves as victim and if they do testify they really are in danger and need protection of the authorities. It has to be seen that victim witnesses in trafficking cases are generally vulnerable to threats.

The BKA has prioritised the fight against trafficking.
That can be seen in operative activities like own preliminary proceedings but as well in the field of research and basic work to fight trafficking in an effective way.
One example is a special manual dealing with traumas. It will soon be available.
The manual was developed by specialists and has been published in cooperation with the Federal Ministry of Family, Seniors, Women and Youth in order to inform people who are professionally involved with victims of trafficking about the impact of traumas with regard to the willingness to testify of victim witnesses and to contribute to a professional interacting with the victims.

Beside that the BKA is doing own researches to improve the fight against trafficking.
For more than ten years the BKA has been working intensively with specialist counselling centres because it is obvious that only well attended victims are good witnesses. Therefore a good support of victim witnesses is indispensable not only for humanitarian reasons but as well to ensure the efficiency of the criminal proceedings. Also in the range of specialist counselling centres international cooperation is indispensable to facilitate the integration of the victims who return to the countries of their origin.

Finally I want to pick out some central police claims for an optimal fight of trafficking:

• The instalment of special offices close to the milieu and assignment of specialised officers also in rural areas is an essential aspect concerning a qualified criminal prosecution. The stronger presence is demonstrated and control of the milieu by so-called police field workers improves the police range of knowledge and the willingness to cooperate and to file charges.
• In order to recognize victims as such, an improved access to the milieu, legally an equivalent to access and control authorizations on a federal level is needed.
• The implementation of criminal liability for the john who makes use of victims of trafficking has to be realized in close connection with the obligation to demand a brothel licence as well as a licence for offering the service of prostitutes.
• Thedurable implementation of local, regional and interregional, authorities - spanning cooperation forms involving specialist help centres in the sense of “round tables” is an essential element in the all-embracing fight against trafficking as well as a regular information exchange between the cooperation partners across federal state borders.
• In contradiction to the agreements of the 79 th Health Ministers’ Conference of the Federal States the compulsory tests for prostitutes carried out by the health authorities shall be reinstalled. In former times it had already proved to be a good base to install contacts and to detect victims of trafficking.