Press release 08 May 2007
Ministry of Employment
Ministry of Justice

Press invitation: Seminar on trafficking and forced labour, 8-9 May

Minister for Employment Sven Otto Littorin and Minister for Justice Beatrice Ask are hosting the Nordic Expert Seminar on Trafficking for Forced Labour, an expert seminar arranged at Rosenbad on 8-9 May 2007. The seminar is being organised by the Government Offices in cooperation with the OSCE, UNODC and ILO. After the seminar, the media are invited to a press conference.

The participants in the press conference will be:

• Eva Uddén Sonnegård, State Secretary at the Ministry of Employment
• Eva Biaudet, OSCE, Special Representative on Combating Trafficking in Human Beings
• Kristiina Kangaspunta, UNODC, Chief of the Anti-Human Trafficking Unit
• Roger Plant, ILO, Head of the Special Action Programme to Combat Forced Labour

Please bring your press credentials.

The Government has appointed a cross-ministry working group with the task of exploring the incidence of trafficking in human beings in Sweden and presenting proposals for a national action plan. The expert seminar is being arranged as a step in this exploratory work.

Trafficking in human beings is a global phenomenon that occurs within and across national borders, irrespective of whether a state is a country of origin, transit or destination. Trafficking in human beings is believed to be one of the most profitable forms of international organised crime.

Trafficking in human beings can never be combated by measures that are limited to the national level. Cooperation across borders between crime-fighting agencies, social agencies, national and international organisations, and cooperation between agencies and organisations within countries are both vital to achieving success.

The seminar is mainly targeting specially invited government officials and representatives of the social partners from the Nordic countries.

The discussions during the seminar will concern four areas:

1. How can crime-fighting agencies and other parties become better at identifying victims of trafficking in human beings who are subjected to forced labour?
2. How can we in the Nordic countries work to reduce the demand for goods and services that have been produced by exploited workers?
3. How can we become better at identifying children who have fallen victim to trafficking in human beings and how can we best support and protect them?
4. How can we promote cooperation between crime-fighting agencies and the social partners and how can we use agency resources in the most efficient and effective way?