The 10th Intercepted online campaign has been launched on Human Rights Day to enhance the visibility of a human rights-based approach to combating Trafficking in Human Beings. This approach is enshrined in the Council of Europe Convention on Action against Trafficking in Human Beings, which mandates obligations to prevent trafficking, establish a comprehensive framework for the protection and assistance of victims and witnesses, and ensure effective investigation and prosecution.
The campaign emphasizes the crucial need to prioritize human rights, dignity, and safety when developing technologies that track human identity and location, particularly those utilizing biometric data. It also underscores the importance of a gender-sensitive perspective in creating safe online spaces that facilitate the reporting of violence against trafficked individuals and the development of effective policies to combat this crime.
On 13 November, INTERCEPTED project held its second seminar on trafficking under the title Strengthening Digital Capabilities to Counter Human Trafficking. This event was co-organised with the ASIT project, which, as INTERCEPTED, aims to prevent and combat online human trafficking.
The event was opened by Antonio de Nicolo, from the Public Prosecutor’s Office of Trieste (Italy), who commented on the main features of both projects and how they contribute to preventing and counteracting the effects of trafficking, underlining the need for cooperation between different entities at different levels in the field of trafficking in human beings.
Karen Hough, a researcher at the Euro-Arab Foundation for Higher Studies, offered a panoramic analysis of online trafficking, covering the different ways in which this phenomenon manifests itself and the multiple groups and areas it affects, breaking stereotypes about this serious crime and distinguishing it from other crimes. The speaker also stressed the need for cooperation and presented several illustrative cases, whilst offering an interesting catalogue of good practices and solutions from other projects such as OSINT-RADAR or VANGUARD, in which the Euro-Arab Foundation and KEMEA, members of the INTERCEPTED project, also participate.
In his presentation, Lior Mordechai, Director of Customer Success and Marketing at Falkor Ltd., presented the main features of the forensic technology used in human trafficking investigations, which often makes use of open source intelligence (OSINT). Mordechai showed several examples of tools and methods for detecting online grooming and exploitation.
Finally, Sergio Bianchi, Director General of AGENFOR International addressed different strategies to improve collaboration in trafficking investigations, indicating multi-agency intervention models as well as how to develop unified scenarios for action in public-private partnerships against trafficking.
INTERCEPTED is a research project funded by the European Commission’s Directorate-General for Migration and Home Affairs that aims to intercept online recruitment and propaganda to disrupt the business of human trafficking, by enhancing the digital capabilities of law enforcement and judicial authorities and cooperating with internet service providers. The project is a partnership between the Public Prosecutor’s Office in Trieste, Italy, the Hellenic Police in Greece, Germany, the KEMEA Centre for Security Studies in Greece, the NGO AGENFOR in Italy and the Euro-Arab Foundation for Higher Studies in Spain, under the coordination of the University of Public Administration in Bremen (HfÖV). More information can be found on the Euro-Arab Foundation’s project page and on the INTERCEPTED project page.
As part of the INTERCEPTED Project’s Online Seminar Series, together with the ASIT Project, an online meeting focusing on Strengthening Digital Capabilities to Counter Human Trafficking, will be held on November 13, 2024 from 14:00 to 16:30 (CET). The seminar will delve into current trends in online human trafficking and the digital business model. It will subsequently present OSINT and forensic technology for trafficking investigations. Additionally, the practical aspects of multi-agency model and public-private collaboration will be addressed. Finally, the ways of developing a common domestic-foreign investigation scenario will be discussed.
On Thursday 19 September, the INTERCEPTED and OSINT-RADAR projects jointly organised a seminar for law enforcement agencies (LEAs), judiciary and prosecutors. The event, held physically in Tirana (Albania), but in a hybrid format, discussed key aspects of human trafficking, such as public-private cooperation in the fight against trafficking and other crimes such as smuggling of migrants or drug trafficking. The professionals and experts participating in this event placed special emphasis on the analysis of the phenomenon in the Balkans and Eastern Europe and its relationship with the European Union, although experiences located on other routes, such as those of the Central Mediterranean, were also analysed. The access routes from the Balkans to the EU were also analysed, highlighting the geographical value of Trieste (Giulia-Venice-Julia), Bari (Apulia), Slovenia and Albania as key points. In this context, different experiences of cooperation between EU countries and the Balkans, especially between Albania, Italy and Slovenia and, to a lesser extent, France and Spain, were presented and discussed.
In the presentations and discussions, the possible interrelation of the phenomenon of trafficking with other crimes, both online and offline, was analysed. The key role of multi-agency work, cross-border cooperation between different bodies (LEAs, prosecution and judiciary) and the desirability of establishing cooperation agreements between them, both nationally and internationally, was also highlighted. Many of the interventions underlined the benefits of transferring experiences and techniques from the investigation of other crimes, as is the case of the follow-the-money-approach. The key role of digital tools in the fight against this phenomenon and other criminal activities in which organised crime operates was also discussed.
The next INTERCEPTED seminar on digital trafficking, co-organised by the ASIT project, also of a hybrid nature, will be held on 13 November and will mainly target internet providers and experts in digital tools.
The OSINT-RADAR and INTERCEPTED Projects are jointly organizing a seminar on Trafficking in Human Beings which will take place on September 19th and will be offered in a blended format, allowing for both in-person attendance in Tirana, Albania, and virtual participation online.
Trafficking in Human Beings remains a persistent global challenge, significantly hindering the effectiveness of criminal justice and social systems. This complexity arises from the inherent nature of the crime itself, the growing digitalization of trafficking networks, heightened social and economic vulnerabilities, and mass displacement leading to humanitarian crises.
This seminar will equip participants with essential knowledge and tools to combat THB. The agenda will focus on:
Community of Practices for Scenario Awareness and Identification of DaaS (Digital as a Service)
Focus on Financial Transactions and Money Laundering: An Analysis of the modus operandi of different criminal groups specialized in different scenarios and how they operate. Introduction to the ‘Follow the Money’ approach
The financial component of THB: the perspective of the investigators and prosecutors
Strengthening Alliances – Guidelines for Effective Public-Private Cooperation in Countering Human Trafficking
The seminar will be conducted in English and adhere to the Chatham House Rule. This rule ensures all information shared during closed-door discussions remains confidential regarding its source.
The project aims to disrupt the digital model of THB by improving the digital capabilities of law enforcement and judicial authorities, focusing on two points for the disruption: recruitment and advertisement, considering that the methods used in terms of language, platforms, targets, and strategies vary according to the profiles of the victims and the type of exploitation.
Established by the United Nations General Assembly in 2013 and observed annually on July 30th, the World Day Against Trafficking in Persons aims to raise awareness of this heinous crime.In alignment with this year’s global campaign focused on accelerating action to end child trafficking, INTERCEPTED is launching its second targeted campaign with a firsthand account from a leading expert in child protection who works together with victims, NGOs, and government institutions.
📹 Watch here the video of the World Day Against Trafficking in Persons subtitled in different languages:
On November 30, the Euro-Arab Foundation held the conference ‘Prevention, detection and intervention in situations of trafficking in minors under guardianship’, organized by the Andalusian Regional Government with the collaboration of the Euro-Arab Foundation and the INTERCEPTED project.
The conference was aimed at professionals who work with minors who may be victims of human trafficking. It was organized by the Regional Delegation of Social Inclusion, Youth, Families, and Equality of the Andalusian Regional Government, with the collaboration of the Euro-Arab Foundation.
The conference addressed the issue of human trafficking, a form of modern slavery that is a violation of human rights and an attack on human dignity. The violence that derives from this end forces us to rethink the world from another perspective, from a more humanist and gender perspective. In this sense, the human rights approach must lead to the preparation and training of professionals who are in contact with trafficked minors and guarantee the protection of victims through their laws. For this reason, prevention, awareness-raising, and, above all, detection mechanisms must be increased.
The main objectives of this conference were to propose tools and guidelines to strengthen detection, identification, and prevention procedures in order to protect, safeguard, and consolidate the rights of minors in a trafficking situation, as well as to raise awareness of the INTERCEPTED project, which aims to interrupt the digital model of traffickers by improving the digital capacities of police and judicial authorities.
The conference was introduced by Matilde Ortiz Arca, territorial delegate for Social Inclusion, Youth, Families and Equality of the Andalusian Regional Government; Antonio Sánchez Ortega, Deputy Secretary of the Euro-Arab Foundation, who presented the European INTERCEPTED and BIGOSINT projects in which Euro-Arab is working, and Jorge Alberto Torres Segura, head of the Child Protection Service in Granada.
This was followed by the two conferences Trafficking of Minors in the Global Context of Migrations by Habiba Hadjab Boudiaf, intercultural mediator of the Granada Child Protection Service, and Public Policies in Andalusia and Trafficking of Minors by Ramón Rodríguez Gómez, Head of the Childhood Observatory.
The day concluded with the conference Socialising Agents in the Child Protection System by Ana Isabel Cruz Ortiz, director of the ISL La Huerta Minors’ Centre.
Interview with Habiba Hadjab on the prevention, detection, and intervention in situations of trafficking of children in care:
Los miembros del Consorcio de INTERCEPTED en la Kick-off meeting en Trieste, Italia
The new european project INTERCEPTED held its kick-off meeting on April 27 in Trieste, Italy, where consortium partners presented the project, which aims to disrupt the digital business model of human traffickers by enhancing the capabilities of law enforcement and judicial authorities.
At the inaugural meeting the partners presented the different work packages of the project, in which the Euro-Arab Foundation is leading the Communication and Dissemination work package. The INTERCEPTED consortium is led by the Prosecutor Office of Trieste, Italy (TSJudPol) and is composed by the Hellenic Police of Greece (HP), the German Police Academy (HfÖV), the Euro-Arab Foundation of Granada, Spain, the KEMEA Center for Security Studies in Greece and the foundation Agenfor International of Italy.
To disrupt human trafficking, INTERCEPTED focuses particularly on two key points: the recruitment and advertisement that exist on the Internet and the different strategies used by traffickers, according to the diverse types of exploitation and victim profiles. In order to achieve this goal, INTERCEPTED aims to:
Elicit variation in the way the internet is used along the trafficking chain according to target victims’ profiles and types of exploitation.
Design an early interception tool specifically targeting the recruitment of victims and advertisement of services.
Enhance the capabilities of LEAs and Judiciary in public-private cooperation through the planning of OSINT Targeted counter-THB Campaigns.
Establish a common European mechanism for the detection and reporting of suspected online recruitment or advertisement material, fostering strengthened multi-agency cooperation and rapid cross-border responses and ensuring successful use of digital evidence in court.
Strengthen the digital capacities and knowledge base of law enforcement.
INTERCEPTED is conceived as an evolution of the UNCHAINED and BIGOSINT projects, which share the objective of disrupting the online business of Human Trafficking, and also draws on the results and synergies obtained from the MIRROR and PERCEPTIONS projects, in which some of the partners have coincided and collaborated.
The INTERCEPTED project is co-financed by the Asylum, Migration and Integration Fund (AMIF), the Internal Security Fund (ISF) and the Border Management and Visa Instrument (BMVI) of the European Union.
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