On 18 October, the Anti-Trafficking Day is marked across the European Union.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs, to raise awareness of the issue that still remains topical, is taking forward its information campaign of the previous years, “Don’t Let Yourself Be Used”, or “Working abroad. Critically evaluate tempting offers”.
The Latvian consular service receives requests from Latvian nationals who have travelled abroad for employment purposes to help them return home or to recommend further action because the employer has not paid the wages promised, does not sign an employment contract, refuses accommodation, takes away documents, denies any communication with relatives. Cases of people subject to human trafficking abroad are also identified every year. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs often encounters a situation where Latvian nationals agree to transport persons or packages of unknown content for payment, thus becoming, without their own knowledge, a part of an organised crime chain and victims of trafficking in human beings.
Increasingly more often, Latvian nationals travelling from Latvia to exotic destinations in African, South Asian or South American countries attract the attention of law enforcement authorities. Most frequently, persons are detained at airports in South American countries, such as Brazil, Ecuador, Colombia, in connection with drug trafficking. Latvia has a very limited diplomatic and consular representation in Africa, South Asia and South America, and providing consular assistance to Latvian nationals in emergency situations, including to victims of trafficking in human beings, is very complicated.
Background information
- The campaign’s informative materials on labour exploitation and information on the possibilities to seek assistance will be distributed throughout Latvia via websites and social networks with support from the State Employment Agency and the Latvian Association of local and Regional Governments.
- In association with the Office of Citizenship and Migration Affairs of the Ministry of the Interior, JSC Riga International Coach Terminal, JSC Pasažieru Vilciens, and Media Port Riga, an informative video will be displayed on screens in the bus terminal and on trains, as well as at customer service premises of the Office of Citizenship and Migration Affairs and Riga Airport.
- On October 29, Riga Airport will host a seminar on cooperation in the aviation sector to prevent human trafficking. The seminar is organised in line with the Memorandum of Cooperation between the Riga Airport the airBaltic national airline, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Latvia, the Ministry of the Interior of the Republic of Latvia, the Shelter “Safe House” association and the MARTA Centre association on preventing trafficking in human beings in the aviation sector.
- The Ministry of Foreign Affairs joins a Memorandum of Cooperation on the prevention of human trafficking in the aviation sector
Presentations at the seminar will be given by experts from the Ministry of the Interior, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, MARTA Centre, and Shelter “Safe House”.