Norway is strongly committed to the international fight against all forms of trafficking and contemporary forms of slavery and we are deeply engaged in anti-trafficking programs, in partnership with developing countries and regional organizations. We believe that strengthening multilateral cooperation and partnerships is the only way to put an end to this deadly business.
Norway is a destination country for women trafficked for exploitation in prostitution. We are also facing new forms of modern slavery, with foreign citizens exploited in areas as, construction work, agriculture and begging. The level of trafficking is not high, but victims exist within several sectors of society. We are concerned that irregular migrants who come to Norway without gaining the right to stay are vulnerable to exploitation.
Norway continues to seek ways to improve our efforts against trafficking, in close cooperation with civil society.
Norway experiences an increase of work-related crime. By that we understand activities – often organized – violating Norwegian legislation concerning wages and working conditions, social security and taxation; exploiting workers or distorting competition and undermining the social structure.
In 2015, the government launched a broad strategy against work-related crime. Trafficking is one element of work related crime, so the strategy is vital also in preventing and combating trafficking.
One important measure in the strategy has been to make sure that the police and the control agencies use intelligence gathered in order to develop more effective, powerful and accurate crime fighting.
For this reason, we have established a National Interagency Centre for Analysis and Intelligence for the police and the control agencies such as the Tax Administration.
In addition, regional units now unite the police with members from the Tax Administration, the Labour and Welfare Administration (NAV), the Labour Inspection Authority and the Customs and Excise Administration. They conduct coordinated controls directed at individuals and companies suspected of violating the law.
Again, we would like to underline the importance that all national law enforcement agencies report cases of migrant trafficking to national contact points for organized crime for further dissemination.