Romania steps up fight against human traffickers and other serious offences

Romanias criminal code has suffered a series of amendments to enable authorities to crack down on serious crimes like human trafficking, sexual aggression or torture against minors

Daniela Budu, 04.06.2021, 14:00

Several
severe offences, such as human trafficking, slavery, child pornography, proxenetism
will no longer be subject to any statute of limitation in Romania. This means
that no matter how much time has passed, legal proceedings can still be
initiated against the perpetrators of these offenses.

The decision-making
Chamber of Deputies in Bucharest has unanimously endorsed several amendments to
the country’s Criminal Code, initiated by a group of MPs belonging to the
ruling coalition made up of the National Liberal Party (PNL) and USR PLUS
alliance.

The
new amendments also include severer punishment for the accomplices of this type
of offenders as well as for repeat offender involved in child pornography. The
aforementioned amendments were also endorsed by the Senate in April.

It is
a very important law, which does not allow those who commit severe offences,
such as human trafficking, aggression against minors and other severe offences
to get away with their crimes thanks to the statute of limitations. This type
of offenders are to be held responsible for their entire life, says Ludovic
Orban, president of the Chamber of Deputies.

One of
the initiators of the aforementioned law, USR-PLUS senator Simona Spataru said
that Romania needed such amendments because in some cases offenders got away
with their crimes due to dragging investigations and statutory limitations.

Romania
ranks first in Europe in terms of victims of human trafficking and a major
cause for delayed investigations is the fact that these networks of traffickers
are very sophisticated. We are also speaking here about the trafficking with
minors and unfortunately Romania is a source for this kind of trafficking as
well. So, it is very important for us to intervene now says Simona Spataru.

According
to experts of GRETA, a Council of Europe institution specialized in fighting
human trafficking, Romania arguably remains a country of origin for victims of human
trafficking, while Germany, Italy, Spain and the UK used to be the main
destination countries.

GRETA
has urged Romania to make sure it implements effective punishment in the case
of human traffickers and that victims benefit from compensations. In a report
published on Thursday, GRETA says that Romania continues to develop its
legislative framework to take action against human trafficking.

The
group hails the fact that the Justice Minister has called on the general
prosecutor to prioritize actions against human trafficking but notes that many
culprits benefitted from suspended and reduced sentences after they have
admitted guilt.

According
to the report, 2,613 victims of human trafficking were identified between 2016
and 2019 by the Romanian authorities. Three out of four were women and half of
them children as sexual exploitation remains the main purpose of human
trafficking.

(bill)