Calendar of Events - March, 2024

The Project CAPE "Competence building, Assistance provision and Prosecution of labour Exploitation cases in the Baltic Sea region" addresses human trafficking (THB) for labour exploitation in all Council of the Baltic Sea States (CBSS) Member States. The main objective of the project is to support stakeholders in combating and disrupting human trafficking for labour exploitation by analysing and consolidating information, improving assistance to victims and stepping up prosecution of traffickers.

This main objective will be achieved through a set of activities which will be carried out over 24 months and will be divided among the project partners, capitalising on their strengths and experiences in combating trafficking in human beings. Project activities include a kick-off meeting and three main components:

1. A baseline research component on trafficking for labour exploitation in Denmark, Germany, Latvia, Poland and Norway.

2. Three transnational experts’ workshops in Norway, Finland and Germany will be organised involving professionals and practitioners from all CBSS Member States.

3. A high-level conference to present the project outcomes and required actions in the CBSS Member States. Vilnius declaration on combating trafficking for labour exploitation will be developed based on the findings of the research reports and transnational workshops and adopted by the CBSS Member States.

Timeframe: 2 September 2019 - 31 August 2021

Project Leading Partner: Latvia: Ministry of the Interior, Project Manager: Ms Lāsma Stabiņa, National Anti-Trafficking Coordinator, e-mail: lasma.stabina@iem.gov.lv

Project Co-Partners:

Denmark: Department of Gender Equality in the Ministry of Environment and Food, Contact Person: Ms Kamilla Graver Petersen, e-mail: kampe@mfvm.dk

Finland: Joutseno Reception Centre (Finnish Immigration Service), Contact Person: Mr Jari Kähkönen, e-mail: jari.kahkonen@migri.fi

Germany: Federal Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs, Contact Person: Mr Jürgen Thomas, e-mail: juergen.thomas@bmas.bund.de

Lithuania: Ministry of the Interior, Contact Person: Ms Sonata Mickutė, e-mail: sonata.mickute@vrm.lt

Norway: Ministry of the Justice and Public Security, Contact Person: Mr Jan Austad, e-mail: jan.austad@jd.dep.no

Poland: Ministry of the Interior and Administration, Contact Person: Ms Joanna Sosnowska, e-mail: joanna.sosnowska@mswia.gov.pl

Project implementation is co-funded by the CBSS Project Support Facility (PSF), Ministry of the Interior of Latvia and Joutseno Reception Centre in Finland

 

THE PROJECT OUTCOMES

All planned activities have been carried out successfully and the project has contributed to its goal.

1. Research 

Within the Project CAPE several experts from Denmark, Germany, Latvia, Poland and Norway carried out researches on trafficking in human beings for labour exploitation. Researchers were focusing on various angles of trafficking for labour exploitation, including trends, victim’s profile, investigation and prosecution. All these reports, except for Poland, are available in national languages with summaries in English. The report of the Polish research is available in English.

Three international workshops have been organised within the framework of the project:

  • On 23 March 2021 the Norwegian Ministry of Justice and Public Health Security in cooperation with KOM organised an online meeting “Migrant workers at risk of Trafficking in Human Beings for the purpose of Labour Exploitation in Norway”.
  • On 7 June 2021 The Finnish Assistance System for Victims of Human Trafficking and the Finnish Anti-Trafficking Coordinator in cooperation with the CBSS TF-THB organised a workshop “Disclosure, Investigation and Prosecution of labour trafficking cases, identified challenges and best practices in Finland”.
  • On 6 September 2021 The German Federal Ministry for Labour and Social Affairs and the Service Centre against Labour Exploitation, Forced Labour and Human Trafficking in cooperation with the TF-THB organised a webinar on counseling structures to combat labour exploitation, human trafficking and forced labour as well as support services for victims of THB in Germany.

 

3. Final international conference in Vilnius, Lithuania

One of the most visible events of the CAPE project was the online conference “Competence building, assistance provision and prevention of trafficking in human beings for labour exploitation – Addressing trafficking in human beings from a wider perspective was orgnised by CBSS-TF”. The conference gathered more that 100 participants and the record is available here.

One of the most important outcomes of the project, that was also officially announced during the conference, has been an adoption of the Joint Statement of commitment to work against human trafficking for labour exploitation in the Baltic Sea Region in June 2021. This statement was adopted by 10 Baltic Sea States and is a kind of road map of activities to be implemented in order to prevent and combat trafficking of human beings for labour exploitation. 

 

 4. An evaluation and improvement of Transnational Referral Mechanism with a focus to trafficking in human beings for labour exploitation

Finally, the evaluation of the TRM-BSR was completed in December 2022. The evaluation was carried out with an aim to understand how to improve the transnational referral of the Baltic Sea Region, Bulgaria, Romania and Ukraine (https://bsr-trm.com/). The evaluation was carried out by Civitta Latvija and the report is published here.