Risk and needs assessments The requirement that return be conducted with due regard for the safety of victims and their families imposes an obligation upon state authorities to conduct a pre-return risk assessment with the participation of the victim, service providers and authorities in the countries of origin and destination in order to assess the safety of return.35 Risk assessments are conducted to examine risks to the individual associated with return, and to ascertain whether planned protection measures are sufficient or additional measures are needed to ensure the safety of the individual concerned, while considering the different needs of men and women, as well as those belonging to different groups (e.g., age groups and minorities). In most participating States, pre-return risk assessments are not routinely carried out.36 For example, a recent study on victim assistance and protection in the Baltic Sea region found that risk assessments involving law enforcement personnel, service providers and victims were not a regular and established practice.37 The study also noted discrepancies in understanding among law enforcement agencies and service providers of their respective roles and responsibilities in safe return, with service providers expressing the feeling that they were disproportionately burdened with responsibility for ensuring victim protection.38 In some countries, there is no legal or policy requirement to undertake a pre-return risk assessment. Rather, it appears that pre-return risk assessments are only carried out in cases where the victim makes an application for asylum, or when the victim is returned through a voluntary return programme implemented by the International Organization for Migration (IOM)39 or a non-governmental organization that conducts risk assessments. In some countries, non-governmental organizations conduct pre-return interviews and risk assessments and send their findings to the IOM. Where necessary, and with the approval of the trafficked person, IOM uses these findings to consult with country offices and authorities in the country of origin. 35  Report of the EU Group of Experts, recs. 95 and 114. In particular, the Group of Experts has stated that: “In order to ensure that trafficked persons are not sent back to a situation that endangers their life, health or personal freedom and/or would submit them to inhuman or degrading treatment, any decision to deport or return a trafficked person, including trafficked children, should be preceded by a risk assessment.” See also “Proposal for a European Strategy and Priority Actions on combating and preventing trafficking in human beings (THB) and protecting the rights of trafficked and exploited persons”, EU Group of Experts, European Commission, Opinion No. 7/2010, 2010. On the persons and institutions to be involved in a risk assessment, see also Guidelines for the Development of a Transnational Referral Mechanism for Trafficked Persons: South-Eastern Europe, International Centre for Migration Policy Development (ICMPD), 2009 (hereafter: ICMPD TRM Guidelines). 36  “Report on the implementation of anti-trafficking policies and interventions in the 27 EU Member States from a human rights perspective (2008 and 2009)”, European NGOs Observatory on Trafficking, Exploitation and Slavery (hereafter: E-notes Report), 2009, p. 25. 37 UNODC, Human Trafficking in the Baltic Sea Region: State and Civil Society Cooperation on Victim’s Assistance and Protection (New York: UNODC, 2010), p. 43. 38  Ibid. 39  Alison Jobe, The Causes and Consequences of Re-Trafficking: Evidence from the IOM Human Trafficking Database (Geneva: IOM, 2010), p. 47. 38 Part 2: Explanatory Report to the Principles