The Council of Europe’s Group of Experts on Action against Trafficking in Human Beings (GRETA) is publishing its fourth evaluation report on Norway with a focus on vulnerabilities to human trafficking. An additional focus concerns the use of information and communication technology to commit human trafficking offences.
This report, covering the period 2022 - March 2026, also assesses developments since the publication of GRETA’s third evaluation report as regards the implementation of the Council of Europe Convention on Action against Trafficking in Human Beings in Norway.
The Norwegian authorities have continued to develop the legislative, institutional and policy framework for combating trafficking in human beings, including the introduction of the new criminal offences of wage theft as well as amendments to the Working Environment Act and the Child Welfare Act. GRETA also welcomes the adoption of the new National Strategy against Human Trafficking for the period 2025-2030.
However, Norway still lacks a formal and systematic mechanism for data collection on identified victims of trafficking. According to estimates by the National Co-ordinating Unit against Human Trafficking (KOM), around 100 new adult victims were identified annually between 2022 and 2024. Most of them were subjected to sexual exploitation, followed by forced labour or services. Victims mainly originated from Latin America, Africa, Eastern Europe and Asia. The number of identified Norwegian victims has increased, including children subjected to sexual abuse through digital platforms.
The report highlights the vulnerabilities to trafficking of foreign women in prostitution and the need to raise awareness of the support services available to victims and develop exit programmes for persons wishing to leave prostitution.
Migrant workers are another group vulnerable to human trafficking, particularly those employed in agriculture, construction, fishing, cleaning, hospitality and transport. While the Norwegian authorities have taken several steps to prevent their exploitation, GRETA considers that the authorities should proactively provide migrant workers with information on their rights and employment conditions, support services, grievance mechanisms and access to remedies. Other measures include banning recruitment fees by law, ensuring stable payment of wages and introducing more frequent controls and stronger sanctions for employers who operate with illegal agreements, conditions and contracts.
GRETA stresses that asylum seekers and refugees are particularly vulnerable to becoming victims of trafficking and asks the authorities to introduce capacity-building measures for the border police to better detect victims of human trafficking. The authorities should also facilitate greater access to the labour market, vocational training and Norwegian language courses for asylum seekers.
Children and young people are identified as a vulnerable group exposed to risks of trafficking for different forms of exploitation. A growing concern is child criminal exploitation by criminal gangs, in particular in selling drugs. The report notes that frontline workers often lack adequate knowledge about child trafficking and the absence of a specialised shelter for child victims is another concern. GRETA calls on the Norwegian authorities to take proactive measures to identify child victims without solely relying on police risk assessment and to establish mandatory and regular training on human trafficking for child welfare workers, health-care providers and other frontline professionals.
More generally, GRETA calls on the Norwegian authorities to improve the identification of victims of trafficking by setting up a formalised National Referral Mechanism which defines the roles and responsibilities of all frontline actors who may come into contact with victims, and co-operating with specialised NGOs to improve the proactive detection of victims.
The report highlights the low number of convictions for human trafficking in Norway, in particular for trafficking for the purpose of labour exploitation. To improve the criminal justice response to human trafficking, the Norwegian authorities should provide adequate financial and human resources to the specialised police anti-trafficking units as well as reinforced training to prosecutors and judges.
Other recommendations include ensuring access to free legal aid and compensation to victims of trafficking and improving the application of the recovery and reflection period.
Furthermore, GRETA calls on the Norwegian authorities to take additional measures to ensure that victims of trafficking are not punished for unlawful acts they were compelled to commit.
