The government minimally increased prevention efforts. The DEO, as coordinator of the interagency steering committee on trafficking, which met twice in 2023, was responsible for coordinating the projects for prevention and victim assistance under the Single Program, submitting a biannual anti-trafficking report, and various policy initiatives. A technical committee, comprising representatives at the expert level, assisted and advised the steering committee. Civil society could attend meetings for the steering and technical committees to provide consultations. The government remained without a national rapporteur to provide independent analysis of government efforts to combat human trafficking; NGOs and GRETA continued to urge the government to establish such a body. Civil society continued to report the DEO was not effective at steering and coordinating national anti-trafficking efforts. While the government adopted an anti-trafficking NAP for 2022-2025 and GRETA reported the government allocated €2 million ($2.21 million) for implementation in 2023, the NAP did not include: a timeline for completion of action items, an independent monitoring and evaluation body, or a ministry designated with the authority to enforce its implementation. Roundtables, which included government officials and CSOs, were responsible for implementation of the NAP’s action items; however, by the end of 2023, the roundtables were not operational, and GRETA urged the government to introduce an independent evaluation body. The inter-ministerial working group on labor exploitation, which focused on the agricultural sector and illicit labor brokers, continued to implement its previous three-year plan (2023-2025) to combat labor exploitation in agriculture. The government reported allocating €1 million ($1.105 million) to the implementation of prevention activities in 2023, an increase compared with no funding reported for implementation in 2022. The government focused awareness-raising efforts on sectors where exploitation was common, including agriculture, and implemented a multidisciplinary approach by funding an international organization through 2024 to provide cultural mediators and work with labor inspectors to raise awareness of labor trafficking and exploitation among migrant workers. CSOs, regional and local authorities, and the national anti-trafficking hotline conducted several awareness campaigns, including through billboards displaying services available from the national hotline.
Experts and NGOs expressed concern that a March 2023 decree narrowed the range of individuals who qualify for special protection and exempted migrants recovered in certain conditions from some international protections, which could increase their vulnerability to trafficking and re-trafficking. The government continued to cooperate, via an MOU valid through 2026, with the Government of Libya as well as Frontex and the European Border and Coast Guard Agency to manage irregular migration from Libya. However, many NGOs and international experts criticized this coordinated effort because it often resulted in the occupants of vessels identified in the Libyan search-and-rescue area being returned to Libyan shores. Civil society reported state and non-state actors in Libya committed severe human rights abuses, including sex and labor trafficking, against many of the more than 20,078 migrants and refugees returned to Libya between August 2022 and August 2023, including inside detention centers. A 2023 UN fact-finding mission to Libya documented numerous crimes against humanity, including trafficking, committed by Libyan government or state-affiliated actors. The report criticized the EU’s ongoing support to these actors, including the Libyan Coast Guard, and urged member states, including Italy, to ensure funds supporting the EU mission did not contribute to these crimes. In February 2024, Italy’s high court ruled it was not legal to return migrants at sea to Libya and sentenced the captain of a ship who accompanied 101 migrants to Libya in 2018. In its 2024 report, GRETA recommended improved screening of all migrants and urged the government to suspend its MOU with Libya. GRETA also noted recent policies the government implemented to address irregular migration and fear of deportation may have deterred undocumented migrants from choosing to interact with law enforcement and increased vulnerability to trafficking. The government reported signing several trafficking-specific MOUs in 2023, including one with India and another with the International Criminal Court, Netherlands, Spain, and the United Kingdom, to jointly investigate human traffickers and migrant smugglers operating in Libya and other African countries; however, resulting trafficking-specific actions were not reported. The government continued to provide funding to international organizations for anti-trafficking projects, primarily in Africa.
Labor inspectors did not have the authority to formally identify trafficking victims but could refer them to police and NGOs; in 2022, cooperating labor inspectors and police reported identifying 24 potential trafficking victims. With few exceptions, labor inspectors were not authorized to inspect private households without the homeowner’s consent, thereby limiting their detection of domestic servitude. Labor inspectors collaborated with international organizations to strengthen inspection and outreach efforts through the use of cultural mediators and local multidisciplinary task forces. The government maintained a labor exploitation working group at the national level and local task forces in various regions to address labor exploitation, including labor trafficking. Experts estimated that as many as 200,000 agricultural workers, especially seasonal workers, and 500,000 undocumented migrants were at risk of labor trafficking and exploitation in Italy. There were several documented cases of exploitation among the more than 170,000 Ukrainian refugees in Italy; in April 2022, police arrested a suspect for illegal cigarette production, involving the labor exploitation of several Ukrainian refugees. In its 2024 report, GRETA encouraged the government to strengthen the oversight of domestic work and highly vulnerable sectors, such as agriculture, enforce relevant laws, and ensure labor inspectors had sufficient resources.
Fraudulent labor recruitment and passport retention remained concerns. Although illegal, employers or labor recruiters sometimes charged a placement fee to employees, which increased their risk of trafficking. EU workers not considered “highly qualified,” non-EU workers, and asylum-seekers were able to change employers without prior government permission, which may have decreased their vulnerability to trafficking. The government had a licensing and accreditation system for labor brokers and labor recruitment agencies. However, there was a lack of regulation – including a licensing or accreditation system – and oversight on massage parlors, which remained likely locations for sex trafficking. In its 2024 report, GRETA noted there were no reported cases of the government holding an agency or company accountable for trafficking or exploitation. In 2022, the government continued efforts to hold individual labor recruiters accountable for illicit labor brokering by arresting 74 suspects (48 in 2021 and 67 in 2020), prosecuting 591 suspects (523 in 2021 and 271 in 2020), and convicting 171 criminals (163 in 2021 and 109 in 2020). Illicit labor brokering did not meet the threshold for labor trafficking; however, law enforcement efforts in this sector helped prevent and reduce the demand for forced labor. In its 2019 and 2024 reports, GRETA recommended the government intensify efforts to screen for trafficking victims more effectively through increased labor inspections, expanded training of inspectors, and in strengthening the monitoring of recruitment and temporary agencies including in agriculture, domestic labor, hospitality, and food service. The law required businesses to submit reports on their actions to minimize the risk of forced labor and prohibited the purchase of products made with forced labor. The DEO continued to operate its 24-hour national hotline for victims of human trafficking, available in 12 languages, through a contract with the Veneto regional government; the government provided €500,000 ($552,486) in funding for the hotline until June 2024. In 2023, 140 calls to the hotline led to the identification of a trafficking victim (6 percent of total victims identified) and 67 victims identified through the hotline subsequently received assistance through the Single Program. The Ministry of Labor maintained a digital platform to provide legal counseling and access to local services to victims of labor exploitation. The government had a help desk dedicated to victims of labor exploitation, including trafficking; the help desk included a hotline, social media accounts, a website, and a chat function. The government did not make efforts to reduce the demand for commercial sex. The government did not report making efforts to reduce the demand for participation in extraterritorial commercial child sexual exploitation and abuse by its citizens despite previous allegations of such actions.
from 2024 Trafficking in Persons Report – U.S. Department of State
2024 Trafficking in Persons Report – United States Department of State
