CoE expert group: “Georgia’s made vast progress to combat human trafficking”
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The Council of Europe’s (CoE) anti-trafficking expert group (GRETA) has today revealed its second evaluation report, which states Georgia has made vast progress to reduce illegal human trafficking.
GRETA said Georgia had worked hard to implement new local legislation and policy to effectively combat trafficking, and had implemented a number of its previous recommendations, in particular:
- The Criminal Code was amended and a new chapter on child victims was introduced into the Law on Combating Trafficking;
- Foreign victims of human trafficking can now receive temporary residence permits both on the grounds of their cooperation in criminal proceedings and for humanitarian reasons;
- Special mobile groups were set up to detect and assist children in street situations including in acquiring identity documents, and;
- A unified database on human trafficking was set up.
GRETA also welcomed the Georgian Government’s efforts to train a variety of professionals and raise general awareness of human trafficking.
Alongside the achievements, the CoE experts also spoke out the areas that still needed to be addressed.
GRETA wrote over the past five years, some 80 people were officially identified as victims and the vast majority of which were Georgian nationals. The report said most of the victims were trafficked for the purpose of labour exploitation, or for the purpose of sexual exploitation both abroad and within Georgia.
Turkey is the main country of destination of Georgian victims of human trafficking. Unemployed women, people from socially unprotected groups such as internally displaced persons (IDPs) and children living and working in the streets are the most vulnerable to trafficking,” stated the GRETA report.
GRETA urged the Georgian authorities:
- To take further steps to ensure the timely identification of victims of trafficking, with a special focus on assisting child victims;
- To specifically define in the legislation the recovery and reflection period that should be granted to all possible victims of trafficking, regardless of their cooperation with the police;
- To review the criminal and civil procedures regarding the trafficking victims’ compensation and to ensure that traffickers assets are frozen and confiscated to secure compensation; and
- To ensure effective monitoring of private employment agencies and other intermediaries to ensure the authenticity of job offers they promote and prevent trafficking for the purposes of labour exploitation.
The Georgian court has sentenced a Kyrgyzstani citizen to 14 years in jail after she was found guilty of human trafficking.
The Georgian Government is actively working to prevent human trafficking in Georgia as a US report states Georgia is "a source, transit and destination country for men, women and children subjected to trafficking in persons, specifically the forced prostitution of women and the forced labour of men, women and children”.
For the first time Georgia has been named among a group of nations that best combat human trafficking and whose governments fully comply with the Torture Victims Protection Act (TVPA).
Experts from the Council of Europe (CoE) say the number of people who are ill or die in prison due to poor health has "significantly decreased” over the past three years thanks to efforts by the Government of Georgia.
Secretary General of the Council of Europe (CoE) Thorbjorn Jagland says the CoE will continue its fruitful cooperation with Georgia no matter which political parties are voted into the legislative body following the October 8 Parliamentary Elections in Georgia.
Today a Committee of Ministers, a statutory decision-making body in the Council of Europe (CoE), said the Government had taken action to improve the lives of inmates in Georgia’s prisons, and results of these efforts were paying off.
Georgia is among several countries taking steps to improve anti-trafficking legislation, policy and practice according to today’s report of the Council of Europe’s (CoE) anti-trafficking expert group (GRETA).
Georgia has been ranked among Tier 1 nations in the Trafficking in Persons Report 2017; an annual report issued by the United States (US) State Department's Office to Monitor and Combat Trafficking in Persons.
The US Department of State reads in its 2018 Trafficking in Persons Report that the government of Georgia fully meets the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking.
European Day on the Protection of Children against Sexual Exploitation and Sexual Abuse is being marked in Tbilisi today. Georgia joined the European Convention on the protection of children against sexual exploitation and sexual abuse in 2015.
Police have detained three individuals for child trafficking in Tbilisi, reports the Georgian Ministry of Internal Affairs (MIA).
The Council of Europe’s (СoE) anti-human trafficking monitoring body (GRETA) has released its third evaluation report on Georgia today, which acknowledged the country’s efforts in fighting human trafficking and identified areas for improvement.
Alexandre Darakhvelidze, the Deputy Minister of Internal Affairs of Georgia, and representatives of the Council of Europe discussed ongoing and future work of the Ministry within the CoE project for the Human Rights Compliant Policing in Georgia (HRCPG) on Thursday.
A new project designed to help Georgian agencies combat human trafficking and supported by the Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe was launched on Friday. The project, entitled Combating Trafficking in Human Beings: Sustaining Multi-Agency Collaboration through National Simulation Based Training Exercises, aims to facilitate the introduction of simulation-based training exercises on trafficking in Georgia.