Trafficking in human beings for sexual and other purposes - Polisen

6. Analysis and recommendations42the opportunity of a period of reflection in order todecide whether he or she wants to cooperate with thecriminal investigation authorities, and can thenobtain a temporary residence permit issued by theSwedish Migration Board. Accompanying the permitis a right to protection plus financial, social and medicalassistance for the victim to a greater extent than isthe case for asylum seekers, for example. The temporaryresidence permit provides an opportunity formunicipalities also to receive state compensation forthe accrued costs for the victim, which is governed bya regulation 58 . The strong link to the legal processmeans that victims of human trafficking who areidentified outside of this, in a situation where the victimneeds time for reflection before making a reportto the police, cannot be given the support and help towhich they are entitled under international conventionsratified by Sweden 59 .In cases where victims of trafficking are identifiedoutside the judicial process, when it may be suspectedthat a person has been a victim of trafficking, only hisor her basic needs can be provided, such as the paymentof emergency financial benefit payments fromthe social services, known as emergency assistance.This may be the case if a person is identified as a victimof trafficking, by social services, for example, andneeds time for reflection to decide whether he or sheshould dare to participate in the legal process orwould be able to cope with doing so.The municipalities will receive no compensationfrom the state for the emergency assistance that theypay out, which means that the victim needs to decidefairly urgently whether or not he or she should participatein the legal process. This means that the victimends up in a stressful situation and may have to make58 Payments from the state to the municipalities are governed bythe Regulation (2002:1118) concerning state benefits for asylumseekers and others59 See, for example, the Council of Europe Convention on theSuppression of Trafficking in Human Beings (2005), Article12.a decision too quickly about possible participation.In a case in which the victim chooses not to participate,there is a risk that the judicial system’s opportunitiesfor being able to investigate the crime willdecrease.More preliminary investigations could eventuallybe initiated as a result of people who are suspected ofbeing victims of human trafficking being offered adequateassistance and protection with no requirementfor a preliminary investigation to be initiated. Thiscould also be done if it were possible to issue residencepermits for accompanying children of witnesses.Proposed measures: To further support the opportunitiesfor law-enforcement agencies to prevent andcombat human trafficking, there should be comprehensivevictim support and protection for people whoare suspected of being victims of human traffickingregardless of purpose, even in cases where a preliminaryinvestigation has not been initiated.The possibility of issuing residence permits for childrenaccompanying witnesses should be consideredin order to facilitate participation in the legal process.Limited access to qualified interpretersThe international agreements signed by Swedeninclude an obligation to ensure that victims are providedwith translations of all materials relating tothem, and also with interpretation services in a languagethey can understand 60 . According to the EUDirective on entitlement to interpretation and translationservices in criminal proceedings, interpretationmust also be available immediately and of sufficientquality to ensure that suspects or defendantsunderstand what they are being accused of and areable to exercise their rights to a defence. The samerights apply to injured-parties 61 . Similar obligations60 See, for example, the Council of Europe Convention on theSuppression of Trafficking in Persons (2005), Article 10.61 The European Parliament and Council Directive 2010/64/EUof 20 October 2010 concerning the right to interpretation andtranslation in criminal proceedings.