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Forced Labour Convention, 1930 (No. 29) - Hungary (RATIFICATION: 1956)

Other comments on C029

Observation

Direct Request

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Articles 1(1), 2(1) and 25 of the Convention. Trafficking in persons. 1. National Anti-Trafficking Strategy and Action Plan. Implementation and assessment. The Committee notes the information provided by the Government, in its report, concerning the adoption of the new National Anti-Trafficking Strategy for 2020–23 and its Action Plan for 2022–23. It observes that the National Anti-Trafficking Strategy focuses on the four main areas, in particular, prevention of trafficking in persons offences; victim identification, referral of victims, victim assistance; judiciary and law enforcement; and partnership with relevant stakeholders. The Committee requests the Government to provide information on the measures taken for the effective implementation of the four areas of the National Anti-Trafficking Strategy and its Action Plan for 2022–23. It also requests the Government to indicate if any impact assessment of the implementation of the Strategy and the results achieved have been carried out and if this is the case to inform on the measures taken in response.

2. Identification and protection of victims of trafficking. According to the Government, the number of identified victims of trafficking increased from 91 persons in 2019 to 239 in 2020 and 201 in 2021. Out of 564 victims of trafficking identified for the period 2018–21 (including 424 women and 137 men), 69 per cent of victims were trafficked for the purpose of sexual exploitation and 29 per cent for the purpose of labour exploitation. The Committee observes from the 2022 Government’s reply to the questionnaire of the Group of Experts on Action against Trafficking in Human Beings (GRETA) for the evaluation of the implementation of the Council of Europe Convention on Action against Trafficking in Human Beings by Hungary that 11 Victim Support Centres were established between 2017 and 2022. In addition, financial support to victims of trafficking were provided under the projects “Complex victim support services for victims of human trafficking” and the “Complex return and reintegration programme for victims of trafficking in human beings”. The Committee takes due note of this information and requests the Government to continue to provide information on the measures taken to ensure that all victims of trafficking in persons, for both sexual and labour exploitation, are properly identified and provided with adequate protection and assistance. Please indicate the number of victims, disaggregated by gender, who have been identified, the number of those who have benefited from assistance services, and those who received compensation.

3. Prosecution and application of sanctions. The Committee notes from the Government’s report the increase in the number of registered trafficking in persons offences from 95 cases in 2020 to 255 in 2021. The number of persons convicted for trafficking in persons was 54 in 2018, 44 in 2019, 24 in 2020 and 57 in 2021. The Government also refers to an agreement on carrying out joint inspections to identify cases of labour exploitation made between the National Police Headquarters and the Ministry for Innovation and Technology in 2021. The Committee requests the Government to continue to strengthen the capacity of law enforcement bodies to identify and promptly investigate and prosecute cases of trafficking for both sexual and labour exploitation. It requests the Government to provide information in this regard as well as on the number of investigations, prosecutions, convictions and penalties applied under section 192 “trafficking in persons and forced labour” of the Criminal Code.