The coalition agreement (2021-2025) obliges the Federal Government to step up the fight against trafficking in human beings and provides for the development of a National Action Plan against trafficking in human beings and the establishment of an independent Monitoring Body for the implementation of the Convention of the Council of Europe. The fight against trafficking in human beings will be coordinated across federal ministries. The aim is to improve support systems for those affected and strengthen their rights.
An important body for setting up support structures and improving victim protection and cooperation at national level is the Federal-Länder working group on combating trafficking in human beings for the purpose of labour exploitation. The working group brings together representatives of the competent Federal Government and Länder ministries, among them those responsible for Labour and Social Affairs, the Federal Criminal Police, trade unions and employers, specialised counselling centres working with victims of human trafficking and other actors such as social security funds and the customs unit responsible for combating undeclared work. The German Institute for Human Rights and representatives of civil society and academia are also represented.
In 2017, the Federal-Länder Working Group developed a strategic concept to combating trafficking in human beings for the purpose of labour exploitation. The concept has six strategic objectives:
- Expanding prevention
- Raising awareness on the part of public authorities and improving the identification of victims
- Expanding counselling and support structures
- Strengthening law enforcement
- Improving situation in terms of data
- Creating public awareness of the issue
On the basis of this strategy, the Federal Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs set up a Service Centre against Labour Exploitation, Forced Labour and Human Trafficking at ‘Arbeit und Leben Berlin e.V.’ (German Trade Union Confederation Berlin-Brandenburg) in 2017 to support the establishment and development of national sustainable cooperation structures for the prevention of labour exploitation, forced labour and trafficking in human beings, the protection of those affected and the effective prosecution of perpetrators. In particular, it provides training to raise awareness of those dealing with persons affected by labour exploitation and trafficking in human beings. In order to implement the fight against trafficking in human beings for labour exploitation in a sustainable manner and to take due account of the strategy, financial support for the Service Centre is now guaranteed until 2025.
The Service Centre publishes sector analyses at irregular intervals on particularly risky sectors, such as the meat industry, home care, agricultural seasonal work and the parcel delivery sector. Foreign workers working in these sectors are particularly vulnerable to labour exploitation and forced labour because of language barriers or irregular residence or work permits.
On its online specialist portal, the Service Centre has made available the industry analyses and extensive practical materials and information on labour exploitation, forced labour and trafficking in human beings. The web-based specialist portal is used by experts such as counsellors and staff of investigative authorities, job centres, immigration authorities and trade unions.
Its legal glossary (in German) helps to improve the prosecution of labour exploitation, forced labour and trafficking in human beings. With the help of a comprehensive data base (in German) specialised counselling centres can be searched in different Länder.
Under the Act to Combat Unlawful Employment and Benefit Fraud of 11 July 2019, the mandate of the customs unit to combat undeclared work was expanded to include the criminal offences of trafficking in human beings in the context of forced labour and labour exploitation. In addition, the Federal Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs, the Federal Ministry of Finance and the German Trade Union Confederation have undertaken to combat undeclared work and illegal employment and trafficking in human beings in connection with employment, forced labour and labour exploitation and, in this context, illegal working conditions as part of a framework agreement. As a result, the existing cooperation between the customs unit responsible for combating undeclared work and the Service Centre has been stepped up. In particular, there are plans for training and raising awareness among the customs unit responsible for combating undeclared work in the main customs offices.
International obligations
Trafficking in human beings takes place in particular across borders and countries and is therefore particularly difficult to combat. This is why it is all the more important to work together internationally and to coordinate the national strategies at the European level. There are plans to do more on both fronts. Close cooperation takes place within the OSCE (Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe) and the Council of the Baltic Sea States.
The international legal framework for Germany is – among other binding sources of law such as the so-called Palermo Protocol (Additional Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punish Trafficking in Persons, in particular of Women and Children, to the United Nations Convention against Transnational Organized Crime) – the Council of Europe Convention on Action against Trafficking in Human Beings’ of 2005 and EU Directive 2011/36/EU on preventing and combating trafficking in human beings and protecting its victims.
The 2005 Council of Europe Convention on Action Against Trafficking in Human Beings was ratified by Germany in 2012.
EU Directive 2011/36 was transposed in Germany by the Act to Improve Action Against Human Trafficking and to Amend the Federal Central Criminal Register Act and Book VIII of the Social Code of 11 October 2016 (Federal Law Gazette 2016, Part I No 48 of 14 October 2016). The criminal offences relating to trafficking in human beings, forced labour, labour exploitation and exploitation involving deprivation of liberty (sections 232-233a of the Criminal Code) were redefined in this Act. On 19 December 2022, the European Commission published a proposal to amend Directive 2011/36/EU. It aims to strengthen protection against trafficking in human beings in the EU and respond to new developments.
The obligation to combat forced labour is stipulated in the ILO Convention on Forced Labour (C 29), 1930. The internationally binding Protocol to this convention was modernised with the aim of stepping up global efforts to eliminate forced labour. Germany ratified the 2014 ILO Protocol to the Forced Labour Convention (C 29) on 31 May 2019.
Similarly, Goal 8.7 of the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) call for immediate and effective measures to end forced labour, modern slavery, human trafficking and child labour in all its forms. In 2021, Germany applied to become a Pathfinder Country within Alliance 8.7. and committed to strengthen its national efforts to eliminate forced labour and child labour. Since February 2023, Germany has officially been a Pathfinder Country.