Committee: United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR)

Country: Federal Republic of Germany

Delegate: Ainesh Basak
School: D.A.V. Public School, Pune
Agenda: Protecting Refugees from Human Trafficking

BRIEF:
Human Trafficking is the recruitment, transportation, transfer, harboring or receipt of people through
force, fraud or deception, with the aim of exploiting them for profit. When refugees are forced to leave
their homeland, they often arrive exhausted, distracted and desperate to get to the next destination.
Traffickers usually pose as volunteers, luring refugees with promises of accommodation, onward
transportation, or employment. Victims are too scared to speak out and approach authorities because of
the fear of deportation or retaliation by their traffickers.
The Federal Republic of Germany has shown solidarity with the refugees in the fight against human
trafficking and, as a result of our historical responsibility, is working hard to alleviate the causes of forced
migration and to protect refugees.

BACKGROUND:
1. Refugees fleeing the armed conflict in Ukraine are increasingly falling victim to human
trafficking and exploitation. As millions of women and children flee across Ukraine’s borders,
there is a growing risk of Ukrainian women ending up in prostitution networks or the
pornography industry. The rising advent of online platforms being used by traffickers to lure
refugees are also a grave cause of concern.
2. Human trafficking is on the rise from the Rohingya refugee camps in south-eastern Bangladesh.
Hundreds of thousands of Rohingyas are being lured by dreams of being able to meet their family
to take an expensive and illegal route to Malaysia. Once outside the camp, men are made to do
forced labor and the women are sold or forced into prostitution. These trafficking syndicates span
across Bangladesh, Myanmar, Thailand and Malaysia.
3. The continuing exodus of Venezuelans demands urgent and increased attention to human
trafficking prevention and response. It has created a scenario for exploitation of Venezuelan
women and girls being forced into and trapped in situations of trafficking and commercial sex.

4. Syrian refugee women and girls in neighboring countries like Jordan, Lebanon and Turkey are
vulnerable to forced or temporary marriages for the purpose of prostitution and other forms of
exploitation.

PAST UN ACTION:
1. Resolution 50/3 adopted by the Human Rights Council on 7 July 2022 expressed concern at the
continued irregular maritime movement of Rohingya Muslims, who risk their lives at the hands of
exploitative human traffickers.
 2. New York Declaration for Refugees and Migrants was unanimously adopted by the United
Nations General Assembly in 2016, A/RES/71/1. It recognizes that refugees and migrants in large
movements are at greater risk of being trafficked and being subjected to forced labor.
3. Global Compact on Refugees, affirmed by the General Assembly on 17 December 2018,
addresses the specific needs, and supporting, of victims of human trafficking. Germany actively
supports its implementation, the objective of which is to ensure a fairer share of international
responsibility with regard to refugees.
4. Global Compact for Safe, Orderly and Regular Migration, adopted by the General Assembly
(A/RES/73/195), lists the prevention, combat and eradication of trafficking in persons in context
of international migration as one of its primary objectives.

STEPS TAKEN BY GERMANY:

1. Unaccompanied refugee minors are taken into care, and offered support, by youth welfare
offices that have local responsibility.
2. Direct financial aid is provided to crisis-hit regions like Afghanistan and Sudan for humanitarian
purposes through UNHCR and WFP. The UNHCR, with Germany’s help, has set up
accommodation, sanitary facilities and medical stations in these countries.
3. Substantially involved in taking in refugees in need of particular protection within the framework
of the EU Resettlement Program.
4. Social media warnings and posts are released in multiple languages at regular intervals by the
Interior Ministry to warn Ukrainian refugees against traffickers. The Federal Foreign Office (and
its missions abroad) offer information, locally and on digital channels, about the actual and legal
conditions for refugees in Germany, thus addressing deliberately spread misinformation and
circulating rumors.
5. Participated in a hackathon conducted by the European Union where various dating sites,
housing and job sites, and advertisements claiming to help Ukrainians, were reviewed to look for
signs of trafficking.
Germany continues its decades long whole-society approach to refugee protection and integration,
displaying humanitarian leadership in global refugee protection and significantly funding the UN
organizations dealing with human trafficking of refugees.

POSSIBLE SOLUTIONS:
1. Prevention campaigns, awareness raising programs, training of volunteers and partners, and
support to hotlines for assistance to victims should be strengthened. Also, regional hotlines
should be reinforced to equip people on the move with important safety and resource information.
Frontline responders should be equipped to recognize and respond to emergent and evolving
forms of human trafficking.
2. Individuals and community members providing transportation and accommodation assistance to
refugees should do so in coordination with local protection agencies and should facilitate
registration; and share contact details, transportation routes, and accommodation locations to
enable proper oversight and safeguarding.
3. The fight against human trafficking of women refugees must be stepped-up by supporting
women’s protection agencies on the ground.
4. Protection efforts with border agencies and government authorities should be coordinated so that
victims do not suffer as a result of ‘status-based approach’, whereby they must access their rights
according to only one status – as a refugee, or victim of trafficking. Organizations and institutions
 must increasingly coordinate their efforts such that they complement one another in offering
protection.
The Federal Republic of Germany stresses the need for a collective response from all member nations of
the UNHCR in terms of capacity building, appropriate collection of evidence, and above all, direct
assistance to all victims and refugees vulnerable to exploitation and trafficking.