Offenses of trafficking and exploitation of human beings rising in France

The Domestic Security Statistical Service has seen a 31% increase in these offenses between 2016 and 2019.

Le Monde with AFP

The trafficking and exploitation offenses of human beings registered in France increased by 31% between 2016 and 2019, before the particular period of the health crisis, according to A study of the Departmental Statistical Safety Department (SSMSI) , published on Friday 22 October.

This is the first time that this service depends on the Ministry of the Interior, publishes a report on this issue. The work consists of a rise in the offenses observed by the police and gendarmerie services. A classic method in the studies produced by the administration, but made complex, on this subject, by the very definitions of the trafficking and the exploitation of human beings: the “revised infringement perimeter includes 125 natures of offenses distributed in eight groups “, write the authors of the report.

Offenses may fall on sexual exploitation, work exploitation, be linked to begging, but also cover the acts of bodies, for example. The SSMSI proposes in this report a revised version of these offenses, on the basis of a work undertaken by the National Observatory of Delinquency and Penal Responses (ONDRP) in 2015 – the ONDRP has been removed in 2020.

This scope “had been developed to exploit data on victims and not to the implications for human trafficking or exploitation offenses,” says the report. This change of approach made it possible to take into account new types of offenses, for example money laundering; It also aims to facilitate international comparisons. France has been condemned twice by the European Court of Human Rights for the difficulties of justice to characterize, pursue and condemn the facts of trafficking and exploitation.

Proxengism in more than Half of the procedures

In 2019, 933 procedures for treating or exploiting human beings were opened by the police and gendarmerie services, compared to 710 in 2016. On the other hand, “in 2020, in the particular context of the health crisis, the Numbers of procedures, victims, implicated and prosecuted and convicted persons fell “, analyzes the SSMSI. A significant number (54%) of the procedures are part of the trafficking or exploitation offenses, but are also associated with other offenses: “15% are offenses of aggression or threats, and 11% of related offenses to the trafficking of migrants. “

Procurement represents more than half of the open procedures. The service stresses that the share of minor victims of procivement increased in the space of four years, from 12% to 33% between 2016 and 2020. “Since 2018, the phenomenon of sexual exploitation of minor or young major people of French nationality increases (…). This corresponds to the rise in the sexual exploitation of French girls since 2017 by law enforcement and civil society “, according to this document.

The study also emphasizes that the action of justice is concentrated “most often” on “enrichment of authors” to pursue facts of trafficking or exploitation. The seizures of assets have increased since 2012, are mainly financial, for a median amount of 2,733 euros for trafficking offenses and € 1,280 for procuring – compared to 700 euros for all criminal seizures in France – between 2016 and 2020.

The number of convictions for human trafficking and exploitation offenses has also increased: 993 people have been sentenced for treating or exploiting human beings in 2019, 46% more than in 2016. but “The data recorded by the institutions only reflect the visible part of the trafficking and exploitation of human beings”, nuance the SSMSI. According to A survey of victims of trafficking cited by ministerial analysis , “in 2020, only 28% of the victims accompanied by the associations filed a complaint”.

/Media reports.