Parliamentary Secretary for Equality and Reforms Rosianne Cutajar alongside Minister for Foreign and European Affairs Evarist Bartolo have launched the Blue Heart Campaign in Malta under the motto ‘have a heart for victims of human trafficking’.

This campaign was primarily launched by the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) in order to rally world public opinion against human trafficking as part of its 17 Sustainable Development Goals.

The central aims of the Blue Heart Campaign are to encourage involvement and inspire action to help stop this crime while allowing people to show solidarity with victims of such crime by wearing the Blue Heart. This symbol is increasingly recognised as the international symbol against human trafficking so by wearing it, one can keep raising awareness and join in the fight against this crime.

“The Blue Heart represents the sadness of those who are trafficked while reminding us of the cold-heartedness of those who buy and sell fellow human beings,” Parliamentary Secretary Cutajar explained during a press conference on Tuesday, commemorating the World Day Against Trafficking in Persons which takes place on 30 July.

One can show their support by joining the Blue Heart Facebook group and adding the Blue Heart of their profile. Businesses can also help by visiting the campaign’s website and displaying the Blue Heart on their site, media posts and newsletters.

The UN is also accepting funds which support the United Nations Voluntary Trust Fund for Victims of Human Trafficking or making in-kind contributions to the campaign and related events.

Cutajar said that victims of such crime can easily go unseen but, whether we acknowledge it or not, human trafficking is a crime that is happening all around us, here in Malta too with 40 registered cases registered per year.

“Human trafficking is a not merely a result of a sophisticated criminal network; social failures, poverty and social inequality lie at its roots,” she said. “I am proud to form part of a government that has worked at eliminating these roots causes as we are not objects to be exploited, we are all human.”

Foreign Affairs Minister Bartolo said that in Malta there is a tendency to blur the lines between human trafficking, human smuggling and irregular migration and put everything under the latter, which is not the case even though it is easy to confuse them.

He explained that the human trafficking phenomenon was already impacting millions who ended up trafficked for sexual exploitation, manual labour and child soldiering before the COVID-19 pandemic hit. However, victims have been put more at risk during the pandemic due to the measures that were implemented in order to curb the spread of the virus, making organised crime networks benefit further from it.

“Malta was one of the 70 countries that endorsed the call to action against forced labour, modern slavery and human trafficking in 2017. We have a history of being a centre for slavery so we have that to make amends with,” he said. “The battle to eradicate this issue is an uphill battle and I encourage all states to increase their efforts and provide support to these victims.”

He also appealed for the UN to continue helping Libya and the Libyan coastguard in order to strengthen their capacity to dismantle human trafficking networks.