http://www.norden.org/en/publications/publikationer/2009-756
Tag Archive: Norway
Page 532
Exploitation of Travellers
On 4 July 2008, the fi rst judgment in a case involving other forms of exploitation was rendered
in Norway. Both the suspects and the individuals who worked for them were British and belonged
to the ‘Travellers’ community. Travellers come originally from Ireland, lead a wandering
existence and often work in the informal economy. The suspects recruited young people
– one of whom was underage – from the street. The young people had problems and some were
scarcely able to look after themselves because they had been banished from their homes and
because of unemployment, homelessness and health problems. They agreed to the proposed
work, laying asphalt and tiles for private individuals, fi rst in the United Kingdom and later in
Norway and Sweden. The suspects paid their journey and housed the four to six employees in
a single caravan. They worked 12 hours a day, six days a week. Most of the victims earned the
equivalent of €11 plus board and lodging a day. On Sundays and days when there was no work
they went from door to door looking for work. Although witnesses made different statements
on the subject, the court found it credible that the suspects had used physical violence or the
threat of violence against the victims.252
The court ruled that in this case the consent of the victims was annulled by the abuse of their
vulnerable position. The court then stated that “[…] merely the conditions of work that the
accused has admitted mean that there exists an ‘exploitation’, and key topics in any evaluation
of whether this occurred in abuse of a vulnerable situation or not will be what their life situation
was prior to the exploitation, and the situation in which they were exploited”. The living
conditions of the victims before the exploitation were such that there was abuse of a vulnerable
situation in this case. The victims were homeless at the time and their only income was social
security benefi ts. Several of the victims also had serious personal problems. The victims appeared
to the judges to be ‘young people who were hardly able to look after themselves’. During
the exploitation, the abuse of the victims’ vulnerable situation was shown by the low wages,
the violence and threats, the long working days and the poor living conditions, including that
fact that they were repeatedly moved to different places. Although they did not lack food and
clothing, there was exploitation in this case by means of abuse of a vulnerable situation.
Another point, according to the court, is whether the victims ‘have been subjected to forced
labour’. The court interpreted ‘forced labour’ as work that a person does not start voluntarily
and/or cannot withdraw from. The court found this latter aspect had been proved in this case,
partly because of the victims’ multiple dependency on the suspects,253 the threat of violence if
they were to run away and their lack of money. Given the situation in which the victims found
themselves during the exploitation, they could not stop voluntarily. Under those conditions,
they were therefore subject to forced labour.
The suspect received a prison sentence of 18 months, with deduction of the time spent on remand.
254 The perpetrator had to pay each of the victims just over €1,100 for emotional injury.
In establishing the amount of compensation, the court took into account the conditions under
which the victims were living before the exploitation. The profi ts were also confi scated and a
car was seized by the government.
Human Trafficking Database 