try to make reintegration programmes less conspicuous, by providing assistance to
larger sections of communities, such as unemployed people, allowing assistance to be
delivered to trafficked persons without identifying them as such.327
The OSCE Action Plan urges states to consider providing social and economic assistance to victims in the context of efforts to ensure their successful rehabilitation and
social reintegration.328 In particular, OSCE states are encouraged to put in place special measures to protect the safety and well-being of children throughout the return
process. Returning states are asked to support measures to monitor the victim’s situation implemented by the authorities in receiving countries upon return.329 The importance of reintegrating child victims is highlighted, and participating States are called
on to strengthen structures to promote the social inclusion and reintegration of victims, both in countries of origin and destination.330
The UN Trafficking Protocol urges states to consider implementing measures to provide for, inter alia, the social recovery of victims of trafficking, “including, in appropriate cases, in cooperation with non-organizations, other relevant organizations and
other elements of civil society”.331
Similarly, the Council of Europe Trafficking Convention requires states to establish
multi-agency re-integration programmes aimed at avoiding re-victimization. In the
EU, the Brussels Declaration confirms that the full range of victim re-integration measures should be made available to trafficked persons irrespective of whether they are
being returned to their home countries or are granted longer-term residency status in
the country of destination.332
The EU Trafficking Directive also mentions reintegration in connection to finding durable solutions for unaccompanied child victims of trafficking.333 Where trafficked persons have been granted refugee or subsidiary status, the EU law provides that member states make provisions for the integration of beneficiaries of international protection, either through the creation of integration programmes or by granting them
access to already existing programmes.334
In addition to the legally-binding provisions developed for EU member states, the
EU Group of Experts has emphasized the importance of victims’ empowerment to
achieving successful reintegration. The group describes the concept of empowerment
327 Surtees, “Re/integration of trafficked persons”, op. cit., note 322, p. 20.
328 OSCE Action Plan, part V, para. 7(3). The 2013 Addendum to the OSCE Action Plan also highlights the issue
of reintegration (part IV, paras. 2 and 2.5).
329 2005 Addendum to the OSCE Action Plan, para. 10.
330 2005 Addendum to the OSCE Action Plan, para. 11.
331 UN Trafficking Protocol, art. 6.3.
332 Brussels Declaration, p. 17.
333 EU Trafficking Directive, recital 23.
334 EU Qualification Directive, art. 34.
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Part 2: Explanatory Report to the Principles
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