Arrival in hotspots: detection of victims

• Author: Amandine Scherrer
• Pages: 16-21

EPRS | European Parliamentary Research Service

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2. Arrival in hotspots: detection of victims

2.1. Challenges relating to the assessment of vulnerabilities

The hotspot is usually the first place where the vulnerability of refugees and migrants arriving by

sea can be picked up. This is where identification and registration of asylum-seekers and migrants is

normally conducted, in the form of screening interviews. It is also at this stage that unaccompanied

children are identified.

As the legal settings in which the hotspots operate in Greece and Italy differ, significant variations

in these processes need to be taken into account. In Greece, after the EU-Turkey Statement of March

2016, the examination of the asylum claims often takes place while people stay in the hotspots. In

Italy, the hotspots are only used for registration, security screening and immediate assistance

purposes.72 As developed in Section 3, the length of the stay in hotspots does have an impact on the

protection of vulnerable people, including victims of trafficking.

Opportunities for detecting victims when they have arrived in hotspots are also affected by a

number of practical issues.73

At the disembarkation stage, the procedures in place include preliminary medical

screening. Whereas theoretically this stage could be the first opportunity to identify

vulnerable people (where national police, with the support of Frontex, carry out the

initial screening procedure), the screening forms currently used in Greece and Italy only

serve to collect identity data and do not contain questions allowing vulnerabilities to be

flagged.74

In hotspots, there is very limited space for a personalised approach: interviews are often

conducted very quickly, in a limited number of languages, and often in ways that are

not adequate given the level of stress, shock and anxiety refugees and migrants are

experiencing.

If and when a refugee or a migrant has shared information with doctors and healthcare

providers giving grounds to believe that such a per son is a possible victim of trafficking,

the lack of clear referral procedures and an extreme workload have often prevented

doctors from taking this information any further.

Even if a person has been identified as a victim, there is often no explicit path of

protection for them.

Therefore, the task of detecting victims of trafficking is fraught with many difficulties. These

shortcomings have raised many concerns, as properly identifying a migrant as a victim of trafficking

will determine the follow-up procedures that will apply to them, as detailed in Section 3.2.

However, as described hereafter, efforts have been made to clarify and strengthen the procedures

in place in hotspots in order to improve vulnerability screening.

72 Ibid, p.16.

73 OSCE, From reception to recognition: Identifying and protecting human trafficking victims in mixed migration flows,

2017.

74 FRA, Update of the 2016 opinion on fundamental rights in the hotspots set up in Greece and Italy, March 2019.