Report: Netherlands not tackling human trafficking problems

While the Netherlands is succeeding in getting more human traffickers to court, the approach to the big problem is still inadequate, BNR reports after speaking to several experts in the field of human traffickers. In the course of 2015 more than 100 people were arrested in connection with human trafficking and 52 were tried. That is about twice as many as last year, but according to human trafficking lawyer Wouter Smeets, the results show that only the "smaller fish are being caught". The larger, organized groups remain unaffected, he said to the broadcaster. According to Professor Mirjam van Reisen, expert in the field of the refugee approach, the detection approach is not properly set up to tackle gangs and how they operate. "Originally people were taken to target countries for prostitution, for example, and the problem was controlled at the border", she explained to BNR. "But in the new form of human trafficking it is mainly about facilitating the rout. Money is earned on the routes and they are organized at a higher international level." In September the government increased the mobile surveillance checks along the borders, and in 7 weeks some 40 suspects were arrested. But Fracoise Landerloo doubts that this approach will be successful. "Through the on Netherlands focused approach, you do not get a grip on the totality of the problem and networks."