A special committee of the Belgian Federal Parliament responsible for evaluating legislation and policy on human trafficking and smuggling, adopted one hundred recommendations on Wednesday by a large majority.
These were supported by opposition party PTB; right and far-right Flemish parties N-VA and Vlaams Belang abstained.
The recommendations will tackle various forms of exploitation that exist in Belgium, be they economic, sexual, exploitation of begging, forced crime, illegal adoption and forced marriage.
Centralising powers, stepping up penalties
The committee proposes a single institution that will operate under the authority of the Minister of Justice and would serve as the national coordination centre for the fight against people trafficking.
In addition, a central contact point would be created for victims within this national centre, accessible 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Moreover, the number of observation centres for identified victims of human trafficking could be increased, with capacity for them to stay for up to 45 days.
The committee members also want to toughen penalties for traffickers and create a new offence of “aggravated economic exploitation”. A dedicated policing unit should also be established, along the lines of those for tax fraud and corruption.
The politicians appealed for regional employment inspectors to be empowered to investigate human trafficking and smuggling. Any serious workplace accident involving a precarious or undocumented resident worker would be investigated under social dumping or human trafficking charges.
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As explained by committee chair Khalil Aouasi (PS): “Very often, the victims of human trafficking and smuggling do not have a residence permit. For fear of being expelled from the country, victims do not dare contact the authorities and are at the mercy of exploiters."
"We need to tackle social dumping at the root. To do that we must adapt the entire legislative framework on the movement of workers to prevent it rather than cure it."
