Human trafficking in Finland
[1][2] Finnish legislation condemns trafficking as a crime and has met the standards of the EU Protocol even before the convention came into effect.
[3] The U.S. State Department's Office to Monitor and Combat Trafficking in Persons placed the country in "Tier 1" in 2017[4] and 2023.
Persons that are victims of human trafficking are usually recruited or taken by the means of the threat or use of force, or by fraud, kidnapping, deception, abuse of power or a vulnerable position with the aim of exploitation.
"[9] A total of 30,146 identified and presumed victims were registered in the 28 EU Member States in 2010–2012, out of which over a thousand were children trafficked for sexual exploitation.
Of the registered victims who are confirmed as EU citizens, the top 5 countries of citizenship are Bulgaria, Romania, the Netherlands, Hungary and Poland.
Over the three years, the top 5 non-EU countries of citizenship of registered victims were Nigeria, Brazil, China, Viet Nam and Russia.
In addition, 71 percent of labor exploitation victims were male in the EU Member States during these three years.
No incidents of organ trade have been detected in Finland, and trafficking tends to mostly appear in forms of prostitution and procuring (pimping), as well as labor exploitation.
[11] Labor exploitation is especially prevalent in berry picking, restaurant, cleaning, metal, transportation, construction and gardening industries as well as in personal households.
[12] According to statistics provided by Eurostat, in 2010–2012 there was a total of 231 registered victims of human trafficking in Finland.
[13] In comparison, the corresponding number of registered victims of human trafficking in Sweden was 311, 179 in Denmark, 125 in Norway, 135 in Estonia and 4,474 in United Kingdom.
[10] For the first half of 2019, in a six-month period from January to June Finland's Assistance System for Victims of Human Trafficking (Migri) reported 115 human trafficking cases, of which most common were forced marriage and being made to work without workers rights in agriculture or restaurants.
Taking advantage of a person's dependence is one of the details defining trafficking in the Finnish Penal Code.
[17] The government also distributed leaflets to thousands of visitors at a major annual travel fair warning that child sex tourism is a crime.
Finland's laws provide extraterritorial jurisdiction over child sex tourism offenses perpetrated overseas by Finnish nationals.
Police and border guard officials used a series of written guidelines on victim referral and treatment developed by the Finnish Immigration Service to proactively identify victims of trafficking; however, one official raised concerns that the threshold for referral to services was too high.
Victims of trafficking wishing to stay longer than six months were eligible to apply for an extended residence permit or asylum as an alternative to deportation.
[17] The government made some effort to ensure victims were not penalized for unlawful acts committed as a direct result of being trafficked.
The government provided anti-trafficking awareness training for labor inspectors, diplomatic personnel, public health workers, immigration adjudication staff and Finnair flight attendants.
[19] The centre does not collect or file systematic information about the clients who come and seek help, and its employees work under a secrecy obligation.
However, the employees of the support centre have the most long-standing and thorough knowledge of the prostitution situation and its developments in the Helsinki region, and this experience is also available for outside research purposes.
[21] The most important bodies working for anti-human trafficking in Finland include the Office of Immigration, Police, National Bureau of Investigation, The Finnish Border Guard, Ministry of Employment and the Economy along with multiple non-governmental organizations such as All Our Children Association, Amnesty International Finland Association, the Refugee Advice Centre and the Pro-support Centre.
The plan covers multiple aspects of the phenomena, including those of providing help to the victims as well as improving the process of convicting suspected human traffickers.
[21] The Ministry of Defense provided Finnish troops who were going to leave for international peacekeeping missions with intensive anti-trafficking training aimed at providing the forces with the ability to identify potential trafficking victims; there were no trafficking-related cases involving Finnish troops or government personnel deployed overseas in 2009.
[17] The government's efforts to monitor and scrutinize its anti-trafficking actions reflected a high level of political will to address human trafficking.
[17] Recently numerous Finnish political parties such as Vasemmistoliitto (Left Alliance), Vihreä Liitto (The Greens), Suomen Ruotsalainen Kansanpuolue and Suomen Kristillisdemokraatit (Christian Democrats) addressed the issue of human trafficking as well as gender equality in their manifestos for the parliamental election in 2015.
The National Research and Development Centre for Welfare and Health (STAKES) is the main organization executing the project.
[19] According to research conducted by Lehti and Aromaa, "The purpose of the project is to monitor prostitution at the national and international level, and to compile and produce information about the phenomena of commercial sex.
