Guidelines to prevent abusive recruitment, exploitative employment and trafficking of migrant workers in the Baltic Sea region

Abstract

The Guidelines to Prevent Abusive Recruitment, Exploitative Employment and Trafficking of Migrant Workers in the Baltic Sea Region is the culmination of the project “ADSTRINGO − Addressing Trafficking in Human Beings for Labour Exploitation through Improved Partnerships, Enhanced Diagnostics and Intensified Organisational Approaches”. The project is implemented by the European Institute for Crime Prevention and Control, affiliated with the United Nations (HEUNI) together with the Ministry of the Interior of the Republic of Lithuania, the University of Tartu in Estonia and the Council of the Baltic Sea States Task Force against Trafficking in Human Beings (CBSS TF-THB). The aim of these guidelines is to address and tackle the different forms of exploitation and trafficking of migrant workers in the Baltic Sea Region that were identified as problematic in the joint ADSTRINGO research report “Exploitation of Migrant Workers in Finland, Sweden, Estonia and Lithuania. Uncovering the Links between Recruitment, Irregular Employment Practices and Labour Trafficking”. In addition, many of these problematic practices and issues have been identified and discussed in the national experts meetings which have been organised under the ADSTRINGO umbrella in Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Germany, Iceland, Latvia, Lithuania, Norway, Sweden, as well as in Poland and Russia. The guidelines have been produced in English and translated to the four other project languages Finnish, Swedish, Estonian and Lithuanian. Ultimately, it is our hope that the guidelines will be utilised in efforts to prevent trafficking for forced labour and to protect the rights of migrant workers in the different countries in the Baltic Sea region.