The Strength to Carry On Resilience and Vulnerability to Trafficking and Other Abuses among People Travelling along Migration Routes to Europe The Strength to Carry On Resilience and Vulnerability to Trafficking and Other Abuses among People Travelling along Migration Routes to Europe Prepared by the International Centre for Migration Policy Development, Vienna - Austria Commissioned and funded by the United States Department of State, Office to Monitor & Combat Trafficking in Persons J/TIP International Centre for Migration Policy Development | February 2019 2 | Report Author: Dr. Claire Healy Research Team: Giulia Casentini, Claudia Köhler, Stojanka Mircheva, Viktória Sebhelyi, Stevan Tatalović, Stanislava Topouzova, Angelo Tramountanis ICMPD Team: Edgar Federzoni dos Santos, Melita Gruevska Graham, Sanja Milenkovikj, Elena Petreska, Elisa Trossero International Centre for Migration Policy Development (ICMPD) Gonzagagasse 1 A-1010 Vienna Austria www.icmpd.org International Centre for Migration Policy Development All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, copied or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopy, recording, or any information storage and retrieval system, without permission of the copyright owners. Suggested Citation: Healy, Claire (2019). The Strength to Carry On: Resilience and Vulnerability to Trafficking and Other Abuses among People Travelling along Migration Routes to Europe. Vienna: ICMPD. This publication was made possible through support provided by the United States Department of State, under the terms of Award No. S-SJTIP-17-CA-1013. The opinions expressed herein are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the United States Department of State. Layout by: 360° Communication Jürgen Henning Printed and bound by: Polyesterday DOOEL, Skopje ISBN: 978-3-903120-47-1 (print) | 978-3-903120-52-5 (pdf) | 3 Table of Contents Acknowledgements ....................................................................................................................... 7 Chapter 1: Introduction ................................................................................................................ 9 1. Background ...................................................................................................................... 9 2. About the Study ............................................................................................................. 11 3. Methodology .................................................................................................................. 13 4. Research Gaps Identified in Existing Literature .............................................................. 18 5. Terms used in the Study ................................................................................................. 23 Chapter 2: Migration Routes: People and Policies ..................................................................... 31 1. Policy Developments, People on the Move and Migration Routes ................................ 32 2. Eastern Mediterranean and Balkan Routes .................................................................... 34 3. Central Mediterranean Route ........................................................................................ 60 Chapter 3 – Resilience and Vulnerabilities to Trafficking ........................................................... 67 1. Conceptual Framework ............................................................................................... 68 2. Resilience and Vulnerability: the pre-departure phase, the journey and the situation at destination .............................................................. 75 2.1 Personal Characteristics and Circumstances ............................................................... 77 2.2 Personal Circumstances .............................................................................................. 88 2.3 Contextual Factors during the Journey ....................................................................... 98 2.4 Situational Factors during the Journey ..................................................................... 125 2.5 Legal Status in a Destination Context ....................................................................... 142 2.6 Essential Services in a Destination Context .............................................................. 153 4 | Chapter 4: Trafficking ............................................................................................................... 179 1. Introduction ........................................................................................................................... 180 2. Forms of Trafficking ............................................................................................................... 187 a) Commercial Sexual Exploitation in Prostitution ........................................................... 187 b) Forced Marriage ........................................................................................................... 198 c) Labour exploitation ...................................................................................................... 200 d) Trafficking for Domestic Servitude and Care Work ...................................................... 208 e) Exploitation in Forced Criminal Activities ..................................................................... 210 f) Sale of a Child/Illegal Adoption ..................................................................................... 214 g) Trafficking for Removal of Organs................................................................................. 216 h) Related Abuse - Deprivation of Liberty for Extortion ................................................... 217 i) Related Abuse – Child Abduction .................................................................................. 222 3. Challenges for Identification .................................................................................................. 222 4. Traffickers .............................................................................................................................. 227 Chapter 5: Conclusions and Recommendations ...................................................................... 231 5.1 Conclusions ............................................................................................................... 231 5.2 Recommendations ..................................................................................................... 246 Interview Codes ......................................................................................................................... 257 Bibliography ............................................................................................................................... 275 Annex: Potential Trafficking Cases and Related Abuses Identified in the Research .................. 295 | 5 Acknowledgements ICMPD wishes to thank various people for their contribution to this study. Special thanks are due to Dr. Claire Healy, the Research Coordinator, for coordinating the research and composing this report, and to the Country Researchers Dr. Giulia Casentini, Claudia Köhler, Dr. Stojanka Mircheva, Viktória Sebhelyi, Stevan Tatalović, Dr. Stanislava Topouzova and Angelo Tramountanis, for their dedication and commitment in conducting the research in the countries under study and for providing invaluable information and analysis. ICMPD would also like to express its deep gratitude to Prof. Siobhán Mullally, Dr. Angeliki Dimit- riadi and Ms. Veronika Bilger, Peer Reviewers of the study, for their guidance and useful critiques of the research. A key role was played by the ICMPD project team in coordinating and managing the research activities, without which the completion of this Study would not have been possib- le. Thanks to Edgar Federzoni dos Santos, Associate Researcher, Melita Gruevska Graham, Seni- or Project Manager, Sanja Milenkovikj, Project Assistant, Elena Petreska, Project Officer, Martijn Pluim, Director and Elisa Trossero, Head, Anti-Trafficking Programme for their continuous support during the implementation of this research. Finally, ICMPD is particularly grateful to all those people from twenty different countries who had the strength, resilience and generosity to share their personal – often traumatic and painful - -ex periences of travelling the migration routes for the research. We hope that we have done their stories justice in this study. ICMPD is also grateful to all the research informants from state institu- tions, non-governmental and international organisations, local authorities, journalists, academics and all the other interlocutors in Bulgaria, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Italy, North Macedonia and Serbia, who kindly shared their knowledge and experiences for this research. Without the generosity and willingness to participate in the research of people on the move and of key informants, many of the important findings of this study would never have come to light. ICMPD hopes that the findings of this research will contribute to a more human rights-based, evidence-based and generally kinder approach to people seeking refuge and migrating to Europe, and to an improvement in their situation. 6 | | 7 Chapter 1: Introduction 1. Background Around one and a half million people have travelled along the ‘Eastern Mediterranean route,’ the ‘Balkan route’ and the ‘Central Mediterranean route’ since