In an effort to hold perpetrators of human trafficking more effectively accountable, the German federal cabinet on Wednesday approved a draft law that seeks to fundamentally reform the criminal provisions governing human trafficking and exploitation.
The legislation aims to bring additional forms of exploitation, including surrogacy, adoption, and forced marriage, under the scope of human trafficking offences. It also serves to transpose the amended European directive on combating human trafficking into German law.
Federal Justice Minister Stefanie Hubig (SPD) said the draft law would close gaps in criminal liability and place particular focus on the demand side of exploitation. "Anyone who exploits modern slavery by knowingly using such services must not go unpunished," Hubig stated.
Hubig emphasised that Germany itself is a crime scene for human trafficking and exploitation. "In brothels, in nail salons, on construction sites, or in slaughterhouses: modern slavery takes place in many locations," she said. Victims, she added, are recruited through lies, stripped of their freedom, systematically controlled, and exploited. The rule of law, Hubig stressed, must act decisively and effectively against this "inhumane form of criminality."
The criminal provisions on human trafficking were last revised in 2016. According to the Federal Ministry of Justice, those provisions have become outdated, with offence definitions described as convoluted and the evidentiary requirements for their complex elements often set too high. The ministry pointed to low conviction rates as evidence of the difficulties prosecutors face in bringing trafficking cases to court.
The draft legislation provides for a comprehensive overhaul of the trafficking-related offences as well as the provisions on sexual exploitation in the criminal code. Going forward, exploitation through surrogacy, adoption, and forced marriage will be explicitly covered under the definition of human trafficking.
In a significant shift, the new law would make it a criminal offence to knowingly use services provided by victims of human trafficking or exploitation, for example, in nail salons or on construction sites. Under current German criminal law, so-called demand-side criminal liability exists only in connection with the use of sexual services.
To strengthen protections against sexual exploitation, the draft law proposes higher sentencing ranges for offenders. The protection of children and young people from exploitation, m particularly in the context of sexual acts performed in exchange for payment or other compensation, is to be reinforced through new offence definitions and increased penalties.
The Ministry of Justice also noted that victims of human trafficking are frequently coerced into committing other criminal offences as part of their exploitation. To better account for this predicament, the draft law introduces an additional provision in the Code of Criminal Procedure that would allow criminal proceedings against trafficking victims to be discontinued.
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