Norway is a destination and to a lesser extent, a transit and origin country for women and girls subjected to

human trafficking Human trafficking is the trade of humans for the purpose of forced labour, sexual slavery, or commercial sexual exploitation for the trafficker or others. This may encompass providing a spouse in the context of forced marriage, or the extrac ...

, specifically forced prostitution, and men and women subjected to forced labor in the domestic service and construction sectors. Some foreign migrants may also be subjected to forced labor in the

health care Health care or healthcare is the improvement of health via the prevention, diagnosis, treatment, amelioration or cure of disease, illness, injury, and other physical and mental impairments in people. Health care is delivered by health profe ...

sector. Victims identified in 2009 originated in 45 countries, but most originated in

Nigeria Nigeria ( ), , ig, Naìjíríyà, yo, Nàìjíríà, pcm, Naijá , ff, Naajeeriya, kcg, Naijeriya officially the Federal Republic of Nigeria, is a country in West Africa. It is situated between the Sahel to the north and the Gulf o ...

or other African countries and

Eastern Europe Eastern Europe is a subregion of the Europe, European continent. As a largely ambiguous term, it has a wide range of geopolitical, geographical, ethnic, cultural, and socio-economic connotations. The vast majority of the region is covered by Russ ...

. Often, victims were from

minority group The term 'minority group' has different usages depending on the context. According to its common usage, a minority group can simply be understood in terms of demographic sizes within a population: i.e. a group in society with the least number o ...

s in their countries of origin. Criminal organizations were often involved in human trafficking in Norway, and trafficking schemes varied by victims' countries of origin. Children in Norwegian refugee centers and migrants denied asylum were vulnerable to human trafficking in Norway; 44 children went missing from refugee centers during the 2009 calendar year. The

Government of Norway The politics of Norway take place in the framework of a parliamentary, representative democratic constitutional monarchy. Executive power is exercised by the Council of State, the cabinet, led by the prime minister of Norway. Legislative power i ...

fully complies with the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking. The government continued to increase the number of victims identified and forge partnerships with

NGO A non-governmental organization (NGO) or non-governmental organisation (see spelling differences) is an organization that generally is formed independent from government. They are typically nonprofit entities, and many of them are active in h ...

s in Norway and in countries where trafficking victims have originated. Norway convicted and punished a

police officer A police officer (also called a policeman and, less commonly, a policewoman) is a warranted law employee of a police force. In most countries, "police officer" is a generic term not specifying a particular rank. In some, the use of the ...

under Norway's anti-trafficking law, sending a strong message of intolerance for trafficking-related official complicity. The

U.S. State Department The United States Department of State (DOS), or State Department, is an executive department of the U.S. federal government responsible for the country's foreign policy and relations. Equivalent to the ministry of foreign affairs of other nati ...

Office to Monitor and Combat Trafficking in Persons The Office to Monitor and Combat Trafficking in Persons (J/TIP) is an agency within the United States Department of State charged with investigating and creating programs to prevent human trafficking both within the United States and internation ...

placed the country in "Tier 1" in 2017.

Prosecution

The government made some progress in prosecuting sex trafficking offenders and demonstrated a strong response to official complicity in human trafficking. Norway prohibits all forms of trafficking in persons through Criminal Code Section 224, which prescribes a maximum penalty of five years' imprisonment – a penalty sufficiently stringent and commensurate with punishments for other serious offenses, such as

rape Rape is a type of sexual assault usually involving sexual intercourse or other forms of sexual penetration carried out against a person without their consent. The act may be carried out by physical force, coercion, abuse of authority, or ag ...

Law enforcement Law enforcement is the activity of some members of government who act in an organized manner to enforce the law by discovering, deterring, rehabilitating, or punishing people who violate the rules and norms governing that society. The term en ...

officials initiated 31

sex trafficking Sex trafficking is human trafficking for the purpose of sexual exploitation. It has been called a form of modern slavery because of the way victims are forced into sexual acts non-consensually, in a form of sexual slavery. Perpetrators of the ...

and 7 labor trafficking investigations in 2009, compared with 41 sex trafficking and four labor trafficking investigations initiated in 2008. Norwegian authorities

prosecuted A prosecutor is a legal representative of the prosecution in states with either the common law adversarial system or the civil law inquisitorial system. The prosecution is the legal party responsible for presenting the case in a criminal trial ...

seven people under Section 224 for sex trafficking and initiated no forced labor prosecutions in 2009, compared with one forced labor and five sex trafficking prosecutions in 2008. In 2009, six people were convicted of sex trafficking under Section 224, compared with six convictions obtained in 2008. All of the trafficking offenders convicted in 2009 received jail time; there were no

suspended sentence A suspended sentence is a sentence on conviction for a criminal offence, the serving of which the court orders to be deferred in order to allow the defendant to perform a period of probation. If the defendant does not break the law during that ...

s. The average sentence was over 30 months'

imprisonment Imprisonment is the restraint of a person's liberty, for any cause whatsoever, whether by authority of the government, or by a person acting without such authority. In the latter case it is "false imprisonment". Imprisonment does not necessari ...

. In January 2010, a Norwegian police officer was convicted and sentenced to 10 years' imprisonment for human trafficking under Section 224. Some government officials suggested that analysis on why some trafficking investigations do not progress to prosecutions or why other sex trafficking cases have been downgraded to charges of

pimping Procuring or pandering is the facilitation or provision of a prostitute or other sex worker in the arrangement of a sex act with a customer. A procurer, colloquially called a pimp (if male) or a madam (if female, though the term pimp has still ...

would be useful. Some NGOs suggested police drop cases due to a lack of resources for investigations. Norwegian authorities forged partnerships with counterparts in at least 15 countries to advance specific trafficking investigations during the reporting period.

Protection

The Norwegian government made progress in the identification and protection of trafficking victims during the reporting period. Through employment of proactive identification procedures, government officials reported identifying 292 possible trafficking victims, 80 of whom were forced labor victims, in 2009 – an increase from 256 victims, 71 of whom were forced labor victims, identified in 2008. In September 2009, the government conducted a three-day seminar on trafficking victim identification for NGOs and over 200 officials, including police, prosecutors, child welfare specialists, asylum reception center workers, and

immigration Immigration is the international movement of people to a destination country of which they are not natives or where they do not possess citizenship in order to settle as permanent residents or naturalized citizens. Commuters, tourists, and ...

authorities. The government provided direct assistance services to victims as well as funding for NGOs offering victim services. The government gave trafficking victims in Norway shelter in

domestic violence Domestic violence (also known as domestic abuse or family violence) is violence or other abuse that occurs in a domestic setting, such as in a marriage or cohabitation. ''Domestic violence'' is often used as a synonym for ''intimate partner ...

centers,

medical care Health care or healthcare is the improvement of health via the prevention, diagnosis, treatment, amelioration or cure of disease, illness, injury, and other physical and mental impairments in people. Health care is delivered by health profess ...

vocational training Vocational education is education that prepares people to work as a technician or to take up employment in a skilled craft or trade as a tradesperson or artisan. Vocational Education can also be seen as that type of education given to an ind ...

stipend A stipend is a regular fixed sum of money paid for services or to defray expenses, such as for scholarship, internship, or apprenticeship. It is often distinct from an income or a salary because it does not necessarily represent payment for work pe ...

Norwegian Norwegian, Norwayan, or Norsk may refer to: *Something of, from, or related to Norway, a country in northwestern Europe *Norwegians, both a nation and an ethnic group native to Norway *Demographics of Norway *The Norwegian language, including the ...

classes, and

legal assistance Legal aid is the provision of assistance to people who are unable to afford legal representation and access to the court system. Legal aid is regarded as central in providing access to justice by ensuring equality before the law, the right to co ...

. The government encouraged victims to participate in trafficking investigations and prosecutions; all victims who assisted in the conviction of their traffickers received $20,000 or more in

restitution The law of restitution is the law of gains-based recovery, in which a court orders the defendant to ''give up'' their gains to the claimant. It should be contrasted with the law of compensation, the law of loss-based recovery, in which a court o ...

from the government for their trafficking experiences. Victims were permitted to stay in Norway without conditions during a six-month reflection period, a time for victims to receive immediate care and assistance while they consider whether to assist law enforcement – 73 applied for the reflection period, of which 50 were approved and 23 were denied. After the reflection period and deciding to cooperate with the police, 20 victims applied for longer-term

residency permit A residence permit (less commonly ''residency permit'') is a document or card required in some regions, allowing a foreign national to reside in a country for a fixed or indefinite length of time. These may be permits for temporary residency, or p ...

s, and 10 received such permits. Trafficking victims reportedly were not penalized during the reporting period for unlawful acts committed as a direct result of being trafficked. The government funded the IOM to provide voluntary and safe

repatriation Repatriation is the process of returning a thing or a person to its country of origin or citizenship. The term may refer to non-human entities, such as converting a foreign currency into the currency of one's own country, as well as to the pro ...

to foreign trafficking victims.

Prevention

The government made some progress in preventing human trafficking during the reporting period. The government acknowledged trafficking as a serious problem, but it did not fund a national anti-trafficking awareness campaign during the reporting period. In an effort to reduce the demand for

commercial sex acts Prostitution is the business or practice of engaging in sexual activity in exchange for payment. The definition of "sexual activity" varies, and is often defined as an activity requiring physical contact (e.g., sexual intercourse, non-penetr ...

, Norway charged 334 people with the purchase or attempted purchase of

sex Sex is the trait that determines whether a sexually reproducing animal or plant produces male or female gametes. Male plants and animals produce smaller mobile gametes (spermatozoa, sperm, pollen), while females produce larger ones (ova, oft ...

services. Norway coordinated the government's anti-trafficking efforts through an anti-trafficking inter-ministerial commission chaired by a senior advisor at the Ministry of Justice. The inter-ministerial commission systematically monitored Norway's anti-trafficking efforts through annual statistical reports, which are available to the public. The government enhanced its global partnership against trafficking by disbursing approximately $17.8 million in anti-trafficking aid over the last two years to

international organization An international organization or international organisation (see spelling differences), also known as an intergovernmental organization or an international institution, is a stable set of norms and rules meant to govern the behavior of states an ...

s and NGOs operating outside Norway, including in Nigeria. The government provides funding to

ECPAT ECPAT International is a global network of civil society organisations that works to end the sexual exploitation of children. It focuses on ending the online sexual exploitation of children, the trafficking of children for sexual purposes, the se ...

in an effort to reduce the demand for participation in international

child sex tourism Child sex tourism (CST) is tourism for the purpose of engaging in the prostitution of children, which is commercially facilitated child sexual abuse. The definition of '' child'' in the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child is "ev ...

by Norwegian nationals. The government provided anti-human trafficking training to Norwegian troops prior to their deployment overseas on

international peacekeeping ''International Peacekeeping'' is a peer-reviewed academic journal that publishes articles relating to peacekeeping and peace operations. Abstracting and indexing The journal is abstracted or indexed in several scholarly databases, including: Ac ...

missions.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Human Trafficking In Norway

Norway Norway, officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic country in Northern Europe, the mainland territory of which comprises the western and northernmost portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula. The remote Arctic island of Jan Mayen and t ...

Human rights abuses in Norway Crime in Norway by type Women's rights in Norway