Toolkit to defeat human traffickers

European banks and financial institutions have been given a practical toolkit to help them fight human trafficking.

The toolkit, launched last week by the European Bankers Alliance and the Thompson Reuters Foundation, was created with the pro bono legal assistance of a team at Herbert Smith Freehills (HSF). It includes a set of ‘red flag indicators’, case studies and resources to help financial institutions detect and report unusual behaviour or suspicious patterns in financial activity. It draws inspiration from a similar project in the US but the picture in Europe is very different.

While both the UK and the US are mainly destination countries, eastern Europe produces a vast number of trafficking victims, and Italy and other central European states are transit countries. The wide range of different laws and regulations across Europe must also be considered.

After being approached to work on the project in late 2015, HSF studied the issue, drew up proposals for discussion and joined a working group to review and test the indicators. The toolkit has now been shared on a confidential basis with financial institutions, NGOs and law enforcement agencies.

Human trafficking is a pro bono focus for HSF, which drew up a global ‘Accountability Hub’ for the NGO, Focus on Labour Exploitation (FLEX), and also provides substantial assistance to Anti-Slavery International.

Dan Hudson, partner at HSF, said: 'Financial institutions can play a key role in identifying activity related to the trafficking and exploitation of men, women and children. It is only through collaboration that we will tackle this issue and it is good to see that financial institutions are taking the lead in this fight. This toolkit is a very positive step forward and we are pleased to be part of this initiative.'