purposes of co-operation in an investigation or criminal proceedings.138 The personal situation requirement covers a range of situations, including the victim’s safety, state of health and family situation.139 In the case of child victims, the residence permit should be issued in accordance with the best interests of the child, and should be renewed, where necessary, on that basis.140 EU legislation provides for the granting of residence permits on or before the date that the reflection period is due to expire.141 However, granting the residence permit is entirely conditional upon the co-operation of victims, and does not take into account their personal circumstances. A permit may be granted where the victim has shown a clear intention to co-operate, has severed relations with the traffickers and can be of assistance to investigations or judicial proceedings.142 The Brussels Declaration states that short-term residence permits must be made available to victims who agree to co-operate with the criminal justice system.143 The obligation of non-refoulement The principle of non-refoulement is central to the realization of the right to seek and enjoy asylum and is enshrined, inter alia, in the UN Refugee Convention,144 which prohibits states from returning a person to a territory where there is a risk that her or his life or freedom would be threatened and the person would be subjected to persecution. The principle of non-refoulement is also codified in regional law instruments 138  Council of Europe Trafficking Convention, art. 14. 139  Explanatory Report to the Council of Europe Trafficking Convention, para. 184. 140  Council of Europe Trafficking Convention, art. 14(2). There is no provision as to the length of the residence permit or its renewal for either child or adult victims. 141  See EU Council Directive 2004/81/EC. Under this Directive, a residence permit must be valid for at least six months and is renewable if the conditions continue to be met art. 8(3). 142  The EU Group of Experts has stressed that the requirement for co-operation should be understood to mean not only formal involvement in legal proceedings, but also other less formal means of co-operation, such as giving information (see EU Group of Experts, Opinion No. 4/2009, para. 14. The link between entitlement to stay and the right to participate in legal proceedings has been highlighted by the EU Group of Experts, which has recommended that a trafficked person who decides to be a witness in a criminal case or who wishes to claim compensation in a civil case be entitled to a temporary residence permit at least until the end of the legal proceedings (see EU Group of Experts, Explanatory Report 10: Reflection Period and Residence Status, p. 173). As regards criminal proceedings, this recommendation is largely in effect through the application of the EU Council Directive 2004/81/EC on residence permits for victims of trafficking. However, the Directive does not allow victims to stay if their testimony is not regarded as useful, or if victims wish to claim compensation through civil proceedings. The preamble of EU Directive 2009/52/EC requires that member states define in national law the conditions for granting temporary residence permits linked to the length of the relevant national criminal proceedings (see European Commission, Report from the Commission to the European Parliament and the Council on the application of Directive 2004/81 on the residence permit issued to third-country nationals who are victims of trafficking in human beings or who have been the subject of action to facilitate illegal immigration, who cooperate with the competent authorities, COM (2010), p. 493). Please note that this Directive has been subject to review and that, at the time of writing, amendments to the Directive to improve its protection of trafficking victims are being considered. 143  European Union, Brussels Declaration on Preventing and Combating Trafficking in Human Beings, 29 November 2002, 14981/02 (hereafter: Brussels Declaration), p. 16. 144  UN Refugee Convention, art. 33. Part 2: Explanatory Report to the Principles 57