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View the PDF File: Human Trafficking and the Common European Asylum System: Victim Protection and Assistance in the European Union (opens in a new window)

Abstract: Submitted in partial fulfillment of the degree Master of Arts in Law and Diplomacy at the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy. Abstract: This paper examines human trafficking within the European Union and questions how to provide international protection to victims of human trafficking in the EU. The focus of this paper is on the situation of victims who face deportation from the European Union: non-EU citizens who are trafficked into the EU. The core of this thesis is the research question: what mechanisms can be developed within, or to complement, the common European asylum system to provide assistance and protection to victims of human trafficking who want assistance but face deportation from the EU? The argument is maintained that victims of human trafficking are in need of international protection and must not be deported nor forced to return to their country of origin. First, the thesis examines the possibility of affording victims of human trafficking in the EU the right to asylum under the common European asylum system. This paper then concludes that asylum is not an appropriate institutional response for victims of human trafficking, and posits that internal coherence to providing assistance and protection to victims of human trafficking within the European Union could be created through the establishment of a common European temporary residence permit system for victims of human trafficking, complementing the common European asylum system.