In the Norwegian Parliament's Justice Committee, we asked for more money to uncover and counteract incidents such as exploitation in the workplace and forced labor. This will contribute to a better and safer working life for everyone, increased trust and stronger legal certainty for foreign workers.

This was an important message in the hearing on the national budget, where we provided input on the item relating to human trafficking. Uncovering exploitation in the workplace and human trafficking is an important task for our employees in the multilingual counseling service. Today, we receive more inquiries than we are able to process. For 2022, preliminary figures show that more than 850 cases will be referred to our legal team for further investigation.

- The need for legal aid is great, especially among newly arrived third-country nationals and vulnerable EEA citizens, and the situation is worsening due to the war in Ukraine. The people who come to us often lack language skills, knowledge of rights and the support system in Norway.

Herdis Nundal, head of national work and migration at Caritas norge

Important prevention

In order to help more people, there is a need to strengthen the grant pool for civil society.

- Increased funding for Caritas and other organizations in the field will contribute to a better and safer working life for everyone, increased trust and stronger legal certainty for foreign workers.

Herdis Nundal, Head of National Work and Migration at Caritas Norway

She also pointed out that the threshold for classifying a case as human trafficking under section 257 of the Penal Code is very high.

- This is problematic. It is therefore crucial to work preventively by assisting people in the so-called gray zone between exploitation and human trafficking in the legal sense.

Herdis Nundal, Head of National Work and Migration at Caritas Norway

Such cases may, for example, involve serious cases of wage theft, often in combination with psychological violence and substandard living conditions.