Harsher penalties for human trafficking
The Romanian Chamber of Deputies decided to provide assistance to the victims of human trafficking, slavery and rape, concurrently with harsher penalties for perpetrators.
Sorin Iordan, 09.10.2024, 14:00
The Romanian Parliament decided to harshen penalties for human traffickers, in the context of an increase in the number of such cases. The draft law, passed by the Chamber of Deputies, provides that conducting or facilitating prostitution or obtaining patrimonial benefits from the practice of prostitution by one or more minors will be punished with 7 to 15 years in prison. If the perpetrator is a person who has previously committed a crime against sexual freedom and integrity, a crime of child pornography, human trafficking, trafficking of minors or pimping, the penalty for it will be 10 to 20 years behind bars.
Human trafficking committed by a public servant in the exercise of their duties or by a person who has previously committed a crime from those listed above will be punished with 7 to 15 years in prison. The initiators of this law say that there is currently a non-uniform practice regarding the crimes of human trafficking and pimping in its aggravated form, carried out by coercion, and that the new normative act eliminates this deficiency and introduces a uniform legal treatment to people who commit antisocial acts of similar gravity.
The Romanian deputies also adopted a bill according to which the state will grant free legal assistance and financial compensations to victims of domestic violence, rape, illegal deprivation of liberty, slavery, human trafficking, child trafficking and forced labor. According to the law, free legal assistance is granted, among others, to people who have been the target of attempted murder or qualified murder, to the victims of crimes of body injury, mistreatment of minors, family violence, slavery, human trafficking, child trafficking, forced or compulsory labor, rape, rape of a minor, sexual assault, sexual assault of a minor, sexual corruption of minors, sexual harassment, torture and child pornography. Free legal assistance is also granted to family members of deceased persons who were the victims of murder, qualified murder, as well as intentional crimes that resulted in the death of the person. The amount of the aid is 5 gross minimum salaries, established for the year in which the victim submitted the request for assistance.
In 2022, Romania occupied a worrying first place in the European Union in terms of human trafficking. Thus, according to the European Commission, out of 7,000 women exploited annually in the EU, approximately 3,000 were Romanian. Also, according to the National Agency Against Human Trafficking, as of 2005 until the end of 2023, 19,000 victims of human trafficking were registered in Romania.
