The Council of Europe’s expert group on trafficking in human beings, GRETA, has published its first reports on human trafficking in Azerbaijan, “the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia”, the Netherlands and Sweden.

With regard to Azerbaijan, GRETA stressed the importance of strengthening action to prevent and combat trafficking for the purpose of labour exploitation as well as discouraging demand for the services of victims of trafficking, in partnership with the private sector and civil society.

The report on “the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia” urged the authorities to improve the identification of victims, working together with specialised NGOs and labour inspectors, and to help reintegrate victims of trafficking into society by providing them with long-term assistance.

GRETA also recommended that law-enforcement bodies should not have sole responsibility for identifying victims of trafficking in the Netherlands, and underlined the importance of separating the formal identification of victims from the prospects of investigation and prosecution.

Concerning Sweden, GRETA stressed the need to ensure that action to combat trafficking is comprehensive by paying more attention to trafficking for labour exploitation, as well as ensuring that identifying and providing assistance to victims is not made conditional on their co-operation in investigations.

The Council of Europe’s Convention on Action against Trafficking in Human Beings was launched in 2005. It has so far been ratified by 41 of the 47 Council of Europe member states, plus non-member Belarus. GRETA monitors the extent to which those countries put the convention into practice.