Friday 22 November 2024
EUROCRIM24, Bucharest 11-14 September
On September 12th, the INVERT project was presented by Transcrime-UCSC at the Eurocrim2024 conference, organised by the European Society of Criminology in Bucharest. During this event, the project’s preliminary findings were showcased in a panel titled ‘Human trafficking trends and identification of victims’, which brought together researchers from across Europe and stimulated a constructive debate among the speakers and the audience.
The risk-based analysis conducted within the INVERT project shows how legitimate companies are often implicated in cases of labour exploitation, both knowingly and unknowingly. The findings highlight the peculiar roles played by companies in the trafficking and exploitation schemes. While some companies are directly engaged in these illegal activities, detecting exploitation can be challenging for law enforcement and prosecutors. This is often due to long subcontracting chains, where seemingly legitimate companies act as ‘filters’ to conceal exploitation. The actual abuses, instead, are typically concentrated in smaller companies which act as “manpower reservoirs” and deprive workers of their rights. These schemes enable companies to reduce costs and gain a competitive advantage in the market while concealing the associated risks from clients. An in-depth analysis of recent cases based on the risk indicators developed during the project demonstrates, however, that these schemes can be identified by examining financial patterns and networks of interconnected entities.
The analysis also highlights the frequent links between labour exploitation and other crimes, such as tax offences and fraud. This broader perspective enables labour exploitation to be considered under an innovative perspective, within the context of wider corporate crime.
Link to the event: https://www.eurocrim2024.com/
