Belarus failing to prevent human trafficking at its border – Council of Europe

October 28, BPN. Belarusian authorities actively encouraged and contributed to trafficking of foreign nationals through Belarus, said the Council of Europe’s Group of Experts on Action Against Human Trafficking (GRETA) in its recent report.

The report analyzes Belarus’ compliance with the Council of Europe Anti-trafficking Convention in the period from 2017 to 2022. Belarus signed the Convention in 2014, and remains its member, even though the Council of Europe has frozen all relations with the authorities over Belarus’ active support of Russia’s war against Ukraine.

A GRETA delegation visited Belarus in September 2021 when tens of thousands of migrants arrived in the country and set up a camp near the EU border. Migrants were “lured with false promises of easily crossing into the EU” and stuck in Belarus risking abuse and becoming victims of trafficking in human beings, the report said.

The experts pointed out the declining role of the civil society in fighting human trafficking after Belarusian authorities had shut down most of non-governmental organizations. A systematic crackdown on civil society may reduce access to assistance for victims of human trafficking, up to their non-recognition as victims, the experts warned, urging Belarus to step up border controls to fight trafficking.

The report also noted that between 2017 and 2021, 753 people were officially identified as victims of human trafficking and related offences in Belarus, 90 percent of whom were female. Almost all of the victims were Belarusian nationals and over 80 percent were abused inside the country, with sexual abuse being the most frequent form of abuse.

GRETA called on the authorities to develop programs to reduce the vulnerability of children to human trafficking, including orphans, as well as children from rural areas and Roma communities, as they accounted for 32.5 percent of the victims.