The acting Ombudsman of Spain, Francisco Fernández Marugán, coinciding with World Anti-Trafficking Day, has reiterated the need to improve the identification and protection of victims.
The Ombudsman noted that the pandemic caused by Covid-19 has also had an impact on the protection of victims of human trafficking. Thus, in his opinion, it has aggravated and brought to the forefront the systemic economic and social inequalities that are among the underlying causes of human trafficking. In this regard, it would like to recall that several United Nations agencies, as well as expert committees monitoring European conventions on victim protection, have warned about the consequences that social distancing and confinement could have for victims, reinforcing their isolation and drastically reducing any chance of being identified and removed from their exploitative context.
Fernández Marugán pointed out that difficulties continue to be encountered in identifying the victims of this crime and called for improvements to existing protocols for locating particularly vulnerable profiles.
Thus, for example, on the occasion of the visits made by the Ombudsman to the Canary Islands, it was found that not a single victim of trafficking had been detected among the more than 23,000 people who had been intercepted trying to gain irregular access to the Spanish coasts during the past year.
Rapid and agile response
The Ombudsman has also warned of the need to ensure that those “few” victims who come into contact with the authorities receive an agile and rapid response, taking all necessary measures for their identification and protection.
In addition, Fernández Marugán made special mention of minors who are victims of trafficking. In this sense, once again, he denounced problems in the identification of these children.
In its last Annual Report, the Ombudsman has pointed out shortcomings in the interviews of these minors with the competent authorities. In the Ombudsman’s opinion, special training is needed for asylum and trafficking interviews. In addition, Fernández Marugán calls for the identification of suitable centers for the care of this profile of girls with specific needs.
The Ombudsman has been paying special attention to victims of human trafficking for years. As early as 2012, the Ombudsman presented the report Human trafficking in Spain: invisible victims, which included a hundred investigations, interviews with 59 victims and detailed several real cases of which the Ombudsman had become aware.
