Fight against human trafficking, a priority for Government

 PM Nicolae Ciuca highlighted on Thursday, during a work meeting at Victoria Palace, with the Minister of Internal Affairs Lucian Bode and other officials in the field, the fact that the fight against human trafficking represents a priority for the Government and talked about the strategic importance of tackling this phenomenon on the three levels of intervention: prevention, combating, protection.According to a press release sent by the Government, the purpose of this work meeting initiated by the PM was to establish an analysis regarding the results obtained by Romania in preventing and countering human trafficking throughout the year 2021."I would like to make sure that we have a solid coordination from the Government in this area so that the cross-sector measures addressing this complex phenomenon to be efficiently implemented. Prevention actions in the community are fundamental, we must have quick response times in screening, apprehending and investigating traffickers, but just as important is to have an integral approach of the phenomenon, starting from structural measures of fighting poverty," the PM said, as quoted in the press release.In context, the Minister of Internal Affairs, Lucian Bode, presented the current status of the main activities of MAI (Ministry of Internal Affairs) structures with attributes in the area, and state counselor Madalina Turza talked about the new measure of coordinating the Committee for monitoring the implementation of the National Strategy against Human Trafficking at the level of the Chancellery, but also about the unprecedented collaborative effort for establishing the country Report regarding Human trafficking by the US State Department.From the perspective of the General Prosecutor's Office there is a drop in the number of cases, balanced by the number of indictments which is higher in 2021 and the number of people being investigated who are in custody.Furthermore, the director of the National Agency Against Human Trafficking (ANITP) detailed aspects about the European analysis regarding the number of human trafficking victims, investigations and convictions.The Ministry of Justice said that it permanently kept dialogue with the Prosecutor's Office bureaus, carried out a thorough process of anonymizing the victims' data in the ECRIS platform and supported the founding of the Special Section of Prosecutors dedicated to investigating human trafficking cases at the level of DIICOT (Directorate for Investigating Organized Crime and Terrorism).The Ministry of Foreign Affairs highlighted the obvious qualitative leap made by Romania in establishing the report regarding the human trafficking situation (TIP report) for the US State Department, the importance of collaborating with the civil society and continuing actions coordinated by support and assistance granted to victims of human trafficking.