Abstract:
Recent developments in the European Union (EU) policy on the management of migratory flows, including the adoption of the so-called “hotspot approach” in Italy and Greece, have resulted in the implementation of a strategy that is increasingly and, it is argued, almost exclusively security-based. The inability or unwillingness to build mechanisms that, without setting aside the legitimate interests of the EU and its Member States, would have ensured appropriate human rights safeguards, as well as respect for international legal obligations, has had massive effects on the safety and well-being of migrants and of society as a whole. The implementation of a security-based policy has had a particularly significant impact on vulnerable categories of migrants, including victims of human trafficking. In fact, and despite the fact that connections between human rights and the fight against trafficking are multiple and well-established, States have consistently chosen to deal with trafficking as an immigration issue or as a matter of crime or public order. Victims of human trafficking are nonetheless still entitled to the full range of human rights but, in order to access those rights and therefore protection, a key aspect is the process of identification, which ought to be performed as soon as possible including in the context of the hotspots. The “hotspot approach” in its present form, deeply entrenched in the so-called Dublin system, however, cannot be considered in line with a human rights-based approach, and the broader security-based policy that has been implemented at European and national level has undermined the availability and accessibility of protection mechanisms for victims of human trafficking.
