The existence of an enormous number of job announcements that cannot be processed for determining possible false notices hampers the mechanism for identifying cases of trafficking in human beings. The issue was raised by the Center for Assistance and Protection for Victims and Potential Victims of Trafficking in Human Beings and was discussed in the “Anti-Trafficking Hackathon” event staged by NIKA Generation and “Yep!Moldova” in partnership with the OSCE Mission to Moldova, IPN reports.

To improve the mechanism, the Center’s director Rodica Moraru-Chilimar came up with a number of solutions, like the designing of software for analyzing all the job announcements that will generate a report on the existing risk, creation of an online communication platforms where feedback about the employer could be left and development of an application that will enable to determine the employment risk.

Another problem broached by the expert was the downward trend as regards the number of assisted victims of human trafficking and the existence of a number of databases about these victims. Not all the victims benefit from specialized assistance and there is no institution that would issue the document specifying the person’s status. To improve the reference and victim assistance mechanism, Rodica Moraru-Chilimar suggested creating an inter-institutional information system that would enable to see the victim’s road and the services from which this benefitted. Such an information system would exclude the necessity of issuing the status specifying document, would facilitate the provision of services and would exclude the doubling or “loss” of victims.

Radu Cucoș, program officer at the Vienna OSCE Office of the Special Representative and Co-ordinator for Combating Trafficking in Human Being, said victim of human trafficking can be a migrant worker who was promised a well-paying job in the country or outside it, but on arrival the person is forced to work without being paid under physical or psychological threat. Another example is a person who is blackmailed with photos or videos with a sensitive or sexual content and is forced to provide sexual services, or persons from socially-deprived families who are forced to beg or to commit crimes for the exploiter’s benefit.

The expert noted trafficking in human beings is a market where the person is treated like merchandise and this is the third most profitable crime in the world. Trafficking in human being generates US$ 150 billion a year and exploits 24.9 million victims.

Viorel Ciobanu, deputy head of the Human Trafficking Division of the Prosecutor General’s Office, said the trafficking in human beings is most often based on threat or swindle. For example, in case of sexual trafficking, the person is told that he/she will work as a waiter/waitress or in a hotel, while in labor exploitation, the swindle is related to the living conditions, workload or paid salary.

The prosecutor noted trafficking in human beings is a rather serious offense that is punished with 6 to 20 years in jail, while trafficking in children with at most 10 years behind bars or life detention.

According to official data, 341 persons in Moldova in 2019 became victims of trafficking in human beings, 109 of these being minors. Labor exploitation is the most often form of human trafficking, being followed by sexual exploitation.