Expert warns Switzerland is lax in tackling human trafficking

Keystone / Arno Balzarini

Switzerland is not doing enough to combat human trafficking, according to expert Julia Kuruc. Checks on building sites in particular leave much to be desired.

“Checks are nowhere near as strict as we would like,” said Kuruc in an article published in the SonntagsBlick paper on Sunday. Until the end of October, she ran the safeguarding programme for victims of human trafficking at the Zurich Support Centre for Women Victims of Trafficking and Migration.

“Swiss construction companies are not very careful when they use subcontractors, as the pressure in the sector is massive,” said Kuruc. As a result, no one takes a close look at the conditions under which construction workers actually work.

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Workers from south-eastern Europe are lured to Switzerland by false promises of high wages, added the expert. “They don’t get an employment contract, and in the end they are deducted huge sums for board and lodging,” she says. These people can’t defend themselves because they don’t know the local language or Swiss laws, and they end up in debt.

Kuruc deplores the lack of supervision by specialist authorities, which are non-existent in some cantons. She also believes that the Dublin agreement facilitates human trafficking, with migrants in some cases being sent back to a country where they have already been exploited.

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