Romanian Law Accused of ‘Favouring’ Human Traffickers

Eighty-eight Romanian NGOs accused President Klaus Iohannis and MPs of making it harder to prosecute human trafficking and child pornography cases by adopting a controversial new law.

Romania’s President Klaus Iohannis in Bucharest in September. Photo: EPA-EFE/ROBERT GHEMENT

Eighty-eight Romanian NGOs published an open letter on Sunday criticising President Klaus Iohannis for promulgating on October 29 a controversial law that effectively reduces the statute of limitations for crimes related to human trafficking and child pornography.

“We note with deep disappointment that one week after the publication of the European Commission’s Human Trafficking Report in which Romania is presented as the state with the highest number of victims in Europe… the President of Romania enacted a law more favourable to defendants in crimes of child trafficking and child pornography,” the NGOs’ letter said.

The letter said that the new law unjustifiably removes references to child trafficking and child pornography from a paragraph of the country’s criminal code.

It also criticised the fact that Iohannis enacted the law despite 108 NGOs asking him in a previous letter that to send the legislation back to parliament to revise the paragraph.

The NGOs also had harsh words for the government, which they accused of effectively blocking, by withholding a legal opinion, the adoption in parliament of alternative legislation making “considerable changes to improve” anti-trafficking legislation.

Romania is widely considered a hotspot for human and child trafficking in the EU.

The letter pointed to “the large-scale trafficking of Romanians, and to the total lack of political will to combat this phenomenon; both of which greatly affect Romania’s image in Europe, as well as EU security”.

This year’s annual US State Department Trafficking in Persons Report, published in June, noted Romania’s lack of progress in tackling human trafficking. Together with Ireland, Romania was the only EU country placed in the so-called Tier 2-Watch List in the State Department report.

Since the publication of the report, Romanian law enforcement agencies have dismantled several human-trafficking rings exploiting Romanian women and girls abroad.

.