On the International Day against Human Trafficking: For many women, fleeing leads to dependency and labor exploitation

Berlin, July 30.07.2023, XNUMX. Women and girls are still the most common victims of human trafficking worldwide. Refugee women in particular are affected by labor exploitation and sexualised violence. This has to end - DaMigra demands action, not words!

Today, July 30th, is International Day Against Human Trafficking. We take this day as an opportunity to draw attention to the fact that human trafficking is not a marginal phenomenon in Germany. Contrary to the view that human trafficking is primarily a problem of the Global South, labor exploitation has become the most common form of human trafficking in Europe, as emphasized by the Council of Europe's Group of Experts on Combating Human Trafficking (GRETA) in 2022.[1] A particularly dramatic effect of this: In Germany, an estimated 700.000 mostly female workers are employed in 24-hour home care.[2]

Even before the outbreak of war, many 24-hour domestic helpers came to Germany from the Ukraine. The Russian war of aggression in Ukraine has made the situation for refugee women even worse. This is indicated by the increased number of job advertisements in Ukrainian for intensive care in the social media.[3] Refugee women urgently looking for work can find job vacancies for nursing staff at inhumane working conditions on the internet. These are often 24-hour care jobs that offer no job security, no minimum wage, no regular working hours and no privacy for the workers. The boundaries between serious labor exploitation and human trafficking are often blurred. [4]

"So-called live-ins are just one example of the exploitation of people in emergency situations. Once again, it is women who have been discriminated against multiple times who suffer particularly. Germany should and must put its own house in order to efficiently combat the causes of inhumane working conditions. We therefore demand legal and safe escape routes, fair access to educational institutions and the labor market and functioning state control bodies that prevent human trafficking for all migrant and refugee women." emphasizes the Regional Coordinator East of DaMigra eV, Rudaba Badakhshi.

In November 2022, the "Human Trafficking Reporting Unit" at the German Institute for Human Rights (DIMR) started its work. This body is to report continuously and independently on how the Council of Europe Convention against Human Trafficking and the EU Human Trafficking Directive are being implemented in Germany.

Merely documenting and reporting on the implementation of the Council of Europe Conventions on Trafficking in Human Beings is not enough. Studies do not take into account the unreported incidents. It is time to take immediate action at the national level to protect women from all forms of violence that drag them into a spiral of human trafficking. Refugee women need legal and social protection for their physical and mental health. In addition, decision-makers must receive regular education and training on the subject of human trafficking and its manifestations. DaMigra calls for an immediate human rights-based and practical approach by consistently implementing the Istanbul Convention.

DaMigra eV represents the interests of women migrant organizations and their concerns. She is committed to equal opportunities, equal participation and equality for women with a migration background and refugee experience in Germany. DaMigra follows the approach of anti-racist intersectional feminism.

[1] Cf. European Day Against Human Trafficking: States urgently need to combat human trafficking for labor exploitation: https://www.coe.int/en/web/portal/-/european-anti-trafficking-day-states-must-urgently-tackle-human-trafficking-for-labour-exploitation

[2] Cf. Home care: hard work, little protection | Institute for Human Rights (institut-fuer-menschenrechte.de) (accessed on 17.07.2023)

[3] Cf. 24-hour care workers from countries outside the EU Working Paper 07/2021: https://minor-kontor.de/wp-content/uploads/2021/11/FE_WP-Live-ins_2021_07_26_Online.pdf

[4] p. 24, Analysis - Hard work, little protection Eastern European workers in home care in Germany (October 2022): https://www.institut-fuer-menschenrechte.de/fileadmin/Redaktion/Publikationen/Analyse_Studie/Analyse_Harte_Arbeit.pdf

https://www.unodc.org/documents/data-and-analysis/glotip/2022/GLOTiP_2022_web.pdf (accessed on 17.07.2023/XNUMX/XNUMX)