The federal cabinet recently approved a package to reform Germany's human trafficking laws, in a move aimed at helping police authorities identify more cases where foreign workers are being exploited.
Specifically the reform means that customers of businesses that traffic workers could face criminal liability too.
For years, customer liability in trafficking cases was limited to one context: paying for sex with an exploited worker.
This proposal would change that, by including sectors like construction, slaughterhouses, restaurants and nail salons, all industries that rely heavily on immigrant labour where exploitation is known to be easily hidden.
What counts as human trafficking?
German law defines human trafficking as exploiting someone through coercion, deception or by taking advantage of a vulnerable situation.
In practice victims are often recruited abroad with promises of decent work, fair pay and a better life, only to find that their reality looks very different upon arrival.
Forced prostitution is still the most prosecuted form, but government officials say labour exploitation across other sectors has been growing.
Exploitation can take various forms, for example; workers in construction working in unsafe conditions, restaurant employees being underpaid and dependent on housing provided by their employer, or nail salon workers trapped by debts to the people who brought them here.
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So far convictions for human trafficking in Germany have been few and far between. This is due in part to the fact that the legal bar is high and many victims are often afraid to come forward.
A 2021 study by the Criminological Research Institute of Lower Saxony found that most cases only ever come to light because someone complained or reported something they witnessed and not because of active police work.
So could you be prosecuted for getting a manicure?
Not exactly. The law change is not intended to make unknowing customers liable for the actions of human traffickers or exploitative employers.
To be found criminally liable, prosecutors would need to prove a customer knew the person serving them was a trafficking victim.
The draft law clarifies that “mere suspicion” doesn’t cut it.
The law does, however, increase penalties for those who engage in human trafficking: courts could hand down sentences up to ten years in serious cases. The definition of exploitation is also to be expanded, with additions for forced marriage, exploitative surrogacy and abusive adoption arrangements.
Justice Minister Stefanie Hubig called sexual exploitation “particularly degrading" and said the reforms should also sharpen the tools available to prosecute forced prostitution.
The reforms would also make it easier for prosecutors to drop charges against victims for crimes they committed while under coercion.
The bill now goes to the Bundestag and Bundesrat for debate.
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