The fact that the government is taking new steps, through an action plan against human trafficking, to tackle the scourge in all its ugly facets is welcome news indeed.

But while various forms of human trafficking are outlawed by, for example, the Criminal Code, Malta’s commitment to the UN Convention against Transnational Organised Crime, the White Slaves Traffic (Suppression) Ordinance, EU directives and other legal instruments, there is still a way to go in the area, particularly in terms of identifying and protecting the victims.

In this context, human trafficking refers not to the trafficking of asylum seekers but rather to the trafficking of people by means of threat, force or other forms of coercion into abduction, fraud, deception or payment to achieve the control over another person for the purpose of exploitation.

Between 2002 and 2010, there were 10 cases of human trafficking in Malta. All ten cases were related to human trafficking for the purposes of sexual exploitation, some of which were actual cases of sexual slavery, and, together, they resulted in the conviction of 14 people.

Now while 10 cases in almost as many years does not exactly constitute a crisis of national proportions, any one case in which a human being is trafficked so they can be sexually exploited for someone else’s financial gain is utterly reprehensible and any such case is, frankly, one case too many.

And there is very good reason to believe that these 10 cases are only the very tip of the iceberg. But even if there have only been these 10 cases, good sense dictates that the country must have the right and adequately robust mechanisms in place with which to prevent such cases in the first place.

In addition to this, the state must also ensure that such victims are properly identified, and that they are treated as victims and not as perpetrators, that they are given the support and protection these extremely vulnerable victims require and that the perpetrators are effectively prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law possible.

The government had recently said it was in the process of drawing up such a plan, an announcement it had made in the wake of a recent critical report by the US State Department, which concluded that Malta falls short of the minimum standards to provide for the elimination of human trafficking.

The report also placed Malta on the Tier 2 Watch List for the second year running – a category reserved for countries the US feels have a large number of human trafficking victims or where it has seen a lack of action against human trafficking.

The positive news is that the government is on the verge of launching a long awaited action plan against human trafficking, as our sister Sunday newspaper reported in its last issue. That plan is expected to be published in the very near future.

Among the measures is one that will see the office of the Attorney General and the Malta Police Force reviewing and proposing reforms on existing procedures on the identification of victims of human trafficking, before the initiation of prosecution proceedings.

Similarly, health care providers, social service organisations and law enforcement officers are in the foreseeable future to be provided with a manual of procedures for identifying human trafficking victims.

New human resources could be directed to the area through the plan, while an inter-ministerial task force of operational level stakeholders will also be established.

The wide-ranging action plan is expected to run between this month and the end of next year, with accompanying awareness raising initiatives. This is also welcome. Society as a whole should be better alerted to this ugly, often hidden, reality.