The Human Trafficking Research Center will be established at the Faculty of Law, Administration and Economics at the University of Wrocław. The university will run them together with the Dutch police. The idea of establishing the Center appeared in December last year. The war in Ukraine accelerated its implementation.

The agreement to establish the Center was signed by Daphne Bergsma, ambassador of the Kingdom of the Netherlands; Jorn van Rij, Dutch Police Researcher with the Investigation Unit; Prof. Dariusz Adamski, university vice-rector for innovation and change and Prof. Bartłomiej Krzan, vice-dean of the Faculty of Law, Administration and Economics.

“This is a very important initiative. And, unfortunately, it becomes even more important in the face of the war in Ukraine, because we see women and children crossing the border and we know that they are defenseless and exposed to such threats as well. This makes the creation of the center even more important now than last year”, says Daphne Bergsma.

The ambassador adds that the Dutch police run a program tracking human trafficking networks in Europe. The Netherlands is often a destination country or a staging point for victims of such crimes.

The Wrocław university will be part of a network bringing together researchers and practitioners from various countries focusing on collecting and processing data that will be very useful both for the Polish and Dutch police, but also for the policies of other countries due to the fact that criminals operate in international networks. Based on the data, the police will be able to adjust their strategies and policies.

“The Center should also work on the creation of a wider network, including law enforcement agencies and NGOs, in order to cooperate and raise awareness about it. By raising awareness and taking a more active approach to the topic of trafficking in human beings, we can deal with prevention, for example in the student community”, says Jorn van Rij.

Arkadiusz Słomczyński