Changes from plenary report to adopted text

Removed2. Member States shall take the necessary measures to ensure that non-prosecution and non-application of penalties to the victims is not made conditional on the victim's cooperation in the criminal investigation, prosecution or trial, without prejudice to Directive 2004/81/EC or provisions of national law transposing that Directive.

Removed3. Member States shall take the necessary measures to ensure that any decision concerning the non-prosecution and non-application of penalties to the victims is taken following an individual assessment of the case by trained and qualified officials.

Removed4. Member States shall raise awareness and enhance capacities concerning the implementation of the national provisions adopted pursuant to this Article among professionals likely to come into contact with victims, including law enforcement, the judiciary, legal representatives, border management and labour inspectors.

Removed5. Member States shall prohibit any deprivation of liberty, prosecution and application of any penalties in the case of children for their involvement in unlawful activities which they have been compelled to commit as a direct consequence of being subjected to any of the acts referred to in Article 2.’;

Removed(3b) Article 9, paragraphs 3 and 4 are replaced by the following:

Removed‘3. Member States shall take the necessary measures to ensure that persons, units or services responsible for investigating or prosecuting the offences referred to in Articles 2 and 3 are trained accordingly, as well as to create specialised units within Member States’ police forces and prosecution.

Removed4. Member States shall ensure that professionals likely to come into contact with victims of trafficking, such as law enforcement authorities, health care and social services, general and specialist support services and judicial authorities, receive evidence-based training and targeted information on a level appropriate to their contacts with victims, to enable them to detect, prevent and address trafficking in human beings and avoid revictimisation. Such training shall be developed in consultation with women’s specialist support services and support services specialised in victims of trafficking, and shall be human rights based, victim-centred, gender-, disability-, child-, and language- sensitive and trauma-informed.

Removed5. Member States shall take the necessary measures to ensure that effective investigative tools, such as those which are used in organised crime or other serious crime cases, are available to persons, units or services responsible for investigating or prosecuting the offences referred to in Articles 2, 2a, and 3. Member States shall ensure that measures taken to detect, prevent, investigate and prosecute the offences referred to in Articles 2, 2a, and 3 are proportionate to the offence committed.’;

Removed(4) Article 11 ▌ is replaced by the following:

Removed‘Article 11

RemovedAssistance, support and protection for victims of trafficking in human beings

Removed1. Member States shall take the necessary measures to ensure that assistance, support and protection are provided to victims in a gender-, disability- and child-sensitive approach and based on an intersectional approach. Member States shall ensure that assistance, support and protection are provided to victims before, during and for an appropriate period of time after the conclusion of criminal proceedings. Member States shall ensure that the victims have access to assistance free of charge and in a language they can understand. 1a. Member States shall establish whether trafficking victims are stateless or at risk of statelessness and shall take the necessary measures to ensure that assistance and support are provided to those victims taking into account their specific protection needs.

Removed2. Member States shall take the necessary measures to ensure that a person is considered to bea victim and treated as such, as soon as the competent authorities have a reasonable-grounds indication for believing that the person might have been subjected to any of the offences referred to in Articles 2 and 3. 3. Member States shall take the necessary measures to ensure that assistance, support and protection for a victim are not made conditional on the victim’s willingness to cooperate in the criminal investigation, prosecution or trial without prejudice to Directive 2004/81/EC or provisions of national law transposing that Directive.

Removed4. Member States shall take the necessary measures to establish by laws, regulations or administrative provisions, national referral mechanisms aimed at the early detection, identification of, assistance to, and support for detected and identified victims, in cooperation with relevant support organisations, and to appoint a national focal point for the referral of victims. In the process of early detection and identification of victims, Member States shall take the necessary measures to ensure the involvement of relevant civil society organisations and other relevant stakeholders.

RemovedMember States shall establish National Referral Mechanisms with competences in at least the following areas:

Removed(a) with regard to the detection of victims, establishing minimum standards, adapting the procedures to the different forms of exploitation covered by this Directive and setting up contingency plans for sensitive environments;

Removed(b) with regard to the identification of victims, promoting, coordinating and, where appropriate, financing programmes for the identification of those victims, as well as developing tools for risk assessment, including in humanitarian crises;

Removed(c) with regard to the protection of victims, establishing mechanisms to harmonise assistance for those victims and establishing minimum standards in reception centres and programmes referring victims to specific shelter or to psychosocial support resources.

Removed5. The assistance and support measures referred to in paragraphs 1, 1 a and 2 shall be provided on a consensual and informed basis, and shall include long-term assistance and at least at standards of living capable of ensuring victims’ subsistence through measures such as the provision of appropriate and safe accommodation and financial assistance, resources for their economic and social recovery through access to education, training and access to labour market as well as necessary medical treatment including psychological assistance, counseling and information, and translation and interpretation services where appropriate.

Removed5a. Member States shall take necessary measures to provide specialised facilities for the detected and identified victims of trafficking, including women, unaccompanied and separated minors, and to ensure safe places in shelters; Member States shall ensure the presence of gender-trained staff in reception facilities and to provide adequate support and funding to civil society organisations working with them.

Removed6. The information referred to in paragraph 5 shall cover, where relevant, information on a reflection and recovery period pursuant to Directive 2004/81/EC, and information on the possibility of granting international protection pursuant to Council Directive 2004/83/EC and Council Directive 2005/85/EC or pursuant to other international instruments or other similar national rules.

Removed7. The assistance, support and protection measures provided to the victims shall be adapted to the form of trafficking or exploitation of human beings suffered and the specific needs of the victim. Member States shall attend to victims with special needs, where those needs derive, in particular, from whether they are pregnant, their health, a disability or a serious form of psychological, physical or sexual violence they have suffered.’;

Removed(4a) the following article is inserted:

Removed‘Article 11a

RemovedVictims of trafficking in need of international protection

Removed1. Member States shall ensure compliance with the principle of non-refoulement and with the right of victims to apply for international protection or equivalent national status, including when the victim is receiving assistance, support and protection referred to in article 11 and notwithstanding the irregularity of entry into the territory of the Member States or stay paragraph 3. To that effect, the tasks of the national referral mechanisms referred to in article 11 paragraph 4 shall include close cooperation with asylum authorities and establishing protocols to ensure that assistance, support and protection, is provided to victims of trafficking who are also in need of international protection, taking into account the victim’s individual circumstances, including whether they experienced discrimination based on grounds such as gender, sex, race or ethnic origins , disability, age, sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression and sex characteristics, or a combination of those.

Removed2 Member States shall dedicate appropriate resources and shall take the necessary measures to ensure the rapid and accurate detection and identification of victims of trafficking in human beings, and their referral to international protection procedures bycompetent authorities, relevant civil society organizations andother relevant stakeholders involved in the identification, reception and processing of irregular migrants The victims shall be informed of their right to apply for international protection, in a language they can understand and at the earliest opportunity.

Removed3. Member States shall, , take the necessary measures to ensure that the principle of non-prosecution or non-application of penalties to the victim under Article 8 is applied to victims of trafficking in need of international protection.

Removed4. Member States shall ensure complementarity and coordination between international protection systems and procedures for the protection of victims of trafficking. In doing so, appropriate and effective referral mechanisms shall be in place between the authorities involved in anti-trafficking activities and those responsible for granting international protection.

Removed5. Member States shall ensure that the examination of applications for international protection of victims of trafficking and the assessment of the merits of the application is not linked to a victim’s willingness or ability to cooperate with the authorities in the criminal investigation and prosecution of trafficking without prejudice to Directive 2004/81/EC or provisions of national law transposing that Directive.’;

Removed(4b) in Article 12, paragraph 2 is replaced by the following:

Removed‘2. Member States shall ensure that victims of trafficking in human beings have access without delay to legal counselling, and, in accordance with the role of a victim in the relevant justice system, to legal representation, including for the purpose of claiming compensation. Legal counselling and legal representation shall be provided in a language that they can understand and free of charge.’;

Removed(4c) in Article 13, the following paragraphs are added:

Removed‘2a. Member States shall ensure that reporting procedures are safe, confidential and accessible for children, in accordance with their age and maturity.

Removed2b. Member States shall take the necessary measures to detect and identify early child victims of trafficking who give any indication that they could be at risk of persecution in need of international protection and referred to the competent national asylum authorities in accordance with Article 11a.’;

Removed(4d) Article 14 is amended as follows:

Removed(a) paragraphs 1 and 2 are replaced by the following:

Removed‘1. Member States shall take the necessary measures to ensure that the specific actions and support services to assist and support child victims of trafficking in human beings, in the short and long term, in their physical and psycho-social recovery, are undertaken following an individual assessment of the special circumstances of each particular child victim, taking due account of the child’s views, needs and concerns with a view to finding a durable solution for the child, including programs to support their transition to emancipation and adulthood in order to avoid re-trafficking. Within a reasonable time, Member States shall provide access to education for child victims and the children of victims who are given assistance and support in accordance with Article 11, in accordance with their national law. Member States shall provide accommodation for child victims without depriving them of liberty.

Removed2. Member States shall appoint a guardian or a representative for a child victim of trafficking in human beings from the moment the child is identified by the authorities when, under national law, the holders of parental responsibility are, as a result of a conflict of interest between them and the child victim, precluded from ensuring the child’s best interest and/or from representing the child. This provision shall apply also when a child victim of trafficking is under the guardianship of a public or a private institution.’;

Removed(b) the following paragraphs are inserted: ‘3a. Member States shall ensure that a guardian is appointed to unaccompanied child victims of trafficking to represent them, assist them and act on their behalf, as applicable, in order to safeguard their interests and general well-being and so that the unaccompanied children can benefit from the rights under this Directive. Member States shall also take the necessary measures to determine the identity and citizenship of the unaccompanied child and to find their family, provided that this is in the best interest of the child.

Removed3b. Child victims shall have access to specialised child protection and support services, including child friendly shelters and facilities. Member States shall ensure that support measures for protection are adequately afforded to those child victims who go through adoption and welfare services.’;

Removed(4e) Article 15 is amended as follows:

Removed(a) paragraph 2 is replaced by the following:

Removed‘2. Member States shall, in accordance with the role of victims in the relevant justice system, ensure that child victims have access without delay to free legal counselling in a language they can understand and to free legal representation, including for the purpose of claiming compensation.’;

Removed(b) paragraph 3, point (a) is replaced by the following:

Removed‘(a) interviews with the child victim take place without delay after the facts have been reported to the competent authorities;’;

Removed(4f) Article 16 is amended as follows:

Removed(a) paragraph 1 is replaced by the following:

Removed‘1. Member States shall take the necessary measures to ensure that the specific actions to assist and support child victims of trafficking in human beings, as referred to in Article 14(1), take due account of the personal and special circumstances of the unaccompanied child victim. Law enforcement authorities and other professions likely to come in contact with victims or potential victims should be adequately trained for assisting and supporting unaccompanied minors.’;

Removed(b) paragraph 4 is replaced by the following:

Removed‘4. Member States shall take the necessary measures to ensure that, in criminal investigations and proceedings, in accordance with the role of victims in the relevant justice system, competent authorities appoint a representative where the child is unaccompanied or separated from its family. Those persons shall receive specialized training to take particularly into account the vulnerabilities and needs of child victims of trafficking in human beings.’;

Removed(c) the following paragraph is added:

Removed‘5a. Member States shall cooperate and take the necessary measures to trace family of victims or to find and protect unaccompanied child victims who have disappeared.’;

Removed(4g) Article 17 is replaced by the following:

Removed‘Article 17

RemovedCompensation to victims

Removed-1a. Member States shall ensure that the victims of trafficking have the right to an effective and in due time legal remedy under national law in the event of a breach of obligations deriving from this Directive.

Removed1. Member States shall ensure that all victims of trafficking in human beings have access to effective schemes of compensation regardless of whether a judicial process has been initiated.

Removed1a. Member States shall take the necessary measures to ensure that compensation awarded to a victim of trafficking in human beings as a result of a decision adopted in criminal or civil proceedings is paid in due time after the adoption of the decision by the Member State concerned to the victim. The Member State concerned shall pursue those liable for that compensation to reimburse the compensation advanced by the State to the victim.

Removed2. Member States shall establish a national victims fund or a similar instrument according to their national legislation, with the frozen and confiscated proceeds derived from, and instrumentalities used for the commission, or contribution to the commission, of the offences referred to in this Directive in order to pay compensation to victims.’;