Human trafficking in Portugal
Portugal is a destination and transit country for women, men, and children subjected to trafficking in persons, specifically forced prostitution and forced labor. Trafficking victims in Portugal are from Brazil, Colombia, Dominican Republic, Venezuela, Romania, Bulgaria, Ukraine, Moldova, Poland and some African countries. Children from Eastern Europe, including Romani, are subjected to forced begging, sometimes by their families. The government prosecuted a landmark trafficking case in 2009 resulting in significant jail time for eight convicted sex traffickers. It stepped up its anti-trafficking training for law enforcement and labor inspectors, improved collection of comprehensive national data on trafficking, and provided shelter and assistance to an increased number of trafficking victims. Despite these notable efforts, the government neither provided complete data on the overall number of trafficking offenders sentenced, nor indicated whether the majority of traffickers received jail time—a long-standing problem in Portugal. Furthermore, it did not systematically employ a victim-centered approach to front-line victim identification, which continued to result in few victims receiving care and assistance in 2009. U.S. State Department's Office to Monitor and Combat Trafficking in Persons placed the country in "Tier 1" in 2017. Prosecution The Government of Portugal made some important progress towards meeting the minimum standards during the reporting period. In 2009, the government achieved a significant milestone in its anti-trafficking law enforcement efforts by aggressively prosecuting a sex trafficking case resulting in the highest penalties ever handed down for a trafficking crime in Portugal. In this case, the government convicted eight trafficking offenders for forcing 23 Romanian girls into prostitution, resulting in an average sentence of 12 years in prison. Portugal prohibits trafficking in persons for both forced labor and commercial sexual exploitation through Article 160, which prescribes penalties of three to 12 years’ imprisonment – which are sufficiently stringent and commensurate with those for other serious crimes. Although the government prohibits slavery and exploitation of prostitution by means of force, fraud, and coercion under Articles 159 and 169 respectively, it used its broader Article 160 to prosecute traffickers. During 2008 and 2009, police conducted 83 investigations of possible cases of trafficking. During the same time period, the government reported it prosecuted 207 suspected traffickers, convicting 298 under Article 160; the government reported this data was preliminary. This data could also include broader crimes involving sexual exploitation. The government did not provide sentencing information for all convicted traffickers to demonstrate that the majority of those convicted for trafficking received jail time in 2009. In previous years, courts suspended the sentences for the majority of convicted traffickers in Portugal. The government provided specialized anti-trafficking training to judges in December 2009 and trained labor inspectors in January 2010. Law enforcement officials continued to receive periodic specialized anti-trafficking training. Protection The Government of Portugal improved its efforts to protect identified trafficking victims. Authorities identified 272 potential victims during 2008 and 2009, confirming 48 as official victims during this two-year period. During the reporting period, the government continued to employ a standardized method for collecting information on trafficking victims