NCJ Number
248044
Journal
Internal Security Volume: 5 Issue: 2 Dated: July-December 2013 Pages: 83-95
Date Published
December 2013
Length
13 pages
Annotation
The article presents the importance of financial investigations carried out by specialized units to combat money laundering and the detection of illegal profits of trafficking in human beings and smuggling of migrants in order to reduce them.
Abstract
The author presents the EU legal arrangements in the field of anti-trafficking and migrant smuggling policies based on the relevant United Nations' Convention, and describes the problem of money laundering in the context of these criminal practices. The key measures to increase the cost and risk and to reduce the profits of human trafficking and smuggling of migrants should be the involvement of financial intelligence units in preventing and combating these criminal practices. The key component of effective prevention and combating trafficking in human beings and smuggling of migrants, in accordance with the recommendations contained in the EU Strategy for the elimination of trafficking in human beings for the years 2012-2016, should be police cooperation with financial intelligence units both at national and international level. This cooperation should be based on the creation of joint multi-disciplinary investigation teams. At the same time this cooperation should enable data collection and the exchange of information needed to analyse these criminal practices. The involvement of skilled financial investigators in joint investigation teams will contribute to the effective prosecution of human trafficking and illegal migration and the accompanying practices such as corruption and money laundering. The culmination of this type of investigation should be the detection, seizure and confiscation of assets derived from criminal activity. (Published Abstract)