The report provides a comprehensive overview of the situation of trafficking and human smuggling in Belgium in 2024, combining statistical data, case analyses, and an in-depth focus on victims’ psychological vulnerabilities. It examines how these vulnerabilities affect victims’ ability to participate in criminal proceedings, highlights good practices in detection, support, and interviewing of victims, and presents the role of specialised reception centres and legal actors.

Building on these insights, the report sets out concrete recommendations aimed at ensuring that victims’ psychological vulnerabilities and specific needs are adequately considered throughout the criminal justice and support process:

• Strengthen training and specialisation of professionals – Ensure that frontline actors, judges, and other legal professionals are trained to recognise and respond to the psychological vulnerabilities and specific needs of trafficking victims.
   
• Legally allow the extension of the reflection period from 45 days to three months – Give victims who have suffered severe trauma more time to recover before deciding whether to participate in criminal proceedings.
   
• Guarantee the right to free legal assistance from the outset and throughout the procedure – Ensure that all trafficking victims have access to legal representation during the investigation and judicial process.
   
• Emphasise proper reporting by police services – Ensure that police mark “trafficking in human beings” in administrative control reports of foreigners to facilitate victim identification and orientation.
   
• Provide a safe and trusting environment during victim interviews – Adapt interview conditions to the victims’ vulnerabilities, supporting their emotional security, memory recall, and willingness to cooperate.
   
• Pay particular attention to victims’ specificities in interview transcripts – Anonymising certain personal data and objectively noting non-verbal behaviour in official records can enhance victim safety, trust, and the quality of evidence.
   
• Take account of victim memory functioning in interview protocols and training – Train professionals to understand how trauma and memory may affect victim statements and avoid misinterpretation of inconsistencies.
   
• Continue providing structural support to specialised reception centres – Ensure centres can offer secure, tailored assistance, including free psychological support.
   
• Increase awareness among judges and the public prosecution service of victim vulnerabilities – Ensure legal actors understand the impact of trauma on testimony and reduce the risk of secondary victimisation.

For further information, please read the full report (in French or in Dutch) attached above.