Every year, millions of people move across borders in search of employment opportunities. While labour migration contributes significantly to Europe’s economy, unscrupulous and exploitative recruitment and employment practices, including coercive, abusive, fraudulent, and deceptive practices, continue to expose many migrant workers to risks of severe forms of labour exploitation including human trafficking.
People may become vulnerable to human trafficking due to a combination of factors including precarious migration status, language barriers, limited access to information, dependency on recruiters and other mediators and social isolation.
On the World Day against Trafficking in Persons, it is essential to recognise how safe migration policies, ethical recruitment and responsible employment practices among the most effective tools to prevent labour exploitation and human trafficking.
According to the UNODC Global Report on Trafficking in Persons 2024, the number of detected victims trafficked for forced labour increased by approximately 47% between 2019 and 2022, making labour exploitation the most commonly identified form of trafficking worldwide. Criminal networks are increasingly using digital technologies, fake job advertisements and fraudulent recruitment agencies to target migrants searching for employment abroad, particularly in sectors experiencing labour shortages.
Why the hospitality sector matters
Hotels, restaurants and tourism businesses increasingly rely on third-country migrant workers to address persistent labour shortages, particularly during seasonal peaks. While labour mobility supports Europe’s economy, it also creates opportunities for criminal networks to exploit vulnerable job seekers, especially when labour demand cannot be met through safe and legal recruitment channels.
Criminal networks increasingly publish fake job advertisements, operate fraudulent recruitment agencies and deceive workers with false promises of legal employment, accommodation and attractive salaries. Instead, many migrants arrive only to face exploitative working conditions, excessive working hours, withheld wages or restrictions on their freedom.
Hospitality is one of Europe’s largest employers and among the sectors most dependent on seasonal and migrant labour. This places employers in a unique position to prevent exploitation before it occurs by promoting ethical recruitment, transparent employment conditions and respect for workers’ rights.
Alongside the revised EU Anti-Trafficking Directive (EU) 2024/1712, the Pact on Migration and Asylum and related EU initiatives—including the revised Single Permit Directive, the EU Talent Pool, Talent Partnerships, the Seasonal Workers Directive, the Employers Sanctions Directive and the European Labour Authority—promote safer legal migration pathways, stronger labour protections and greater cooperation between public authorities, employers and civil society. Their effective implementation is essential to ensure that labour migration remains an opportunity rather than a pathway to exploitation.
How HOST supports prevention
Recognising that preventing human trafficking and labour exploitation requires cooperation across countries, HOST – Tackling Human Trafficking in the Hospitality sector project brings together organisations, public authorities, NGOs and experts from Greece, Cyprus, Spain, the Netherlands and Italy togetherto strengthen prevention efforts within the hospitality sector.
By combining research, capacity building, awareness-raising activities and protocols, the project promotes a shared European approach to ethical recruitment, workers’ rights protection and early identification of risks.
The project has already achieved important results by strengthening the capacities of key actors across the partnership. More than 400 municipal staff were trained to improve the identification of trafficking risks and enhance institutional responses, 50 hospitality employers in each participating country received specialised training to recognise indicators of trafficking and labour exploitation and to promote ethical recruitment practices within their businesses. The project is also training 100 migrant workers per country to increase awareness of labour rights, safe employment pathways and available protection mechanisms.
Building on these achievements, HOST is now preparing to support approximately 40 migrant workers in each country through individualised case management, ensuring identification, protection, access to specialised support services and social and labour reintegration opportunities.
By investing simultaneously in public authorities, employers and migrant workers, HOST contributes to building a coordinated prevention system capable of reducing vulnerabilities before exploitation occurs.
What hospitality employers and stakeholders can do
Preventing labour exploitation requires the active engagement of businesses, public institutions and civil society.
Hospitality employers can contribute by:
- Verifying recruitment agencies and job advertisements;
- Providing transparent employment contracts before workers travel;
- Ensuring workers retain possession of their identity documents;
- Informing employees about their labour rights and available support services;
- Training managers and staff to recognise indicators of labour exploitation and human trafficking.
Creating fair, transparent and rights-based workplaces not only protects workers but also strengthens business sustainability, reputation and customer trust.
A shared European responsibility
On the World Day against Trafficking in Persons, HOST reaffirms that preventing human trafficking is a shared responsibility. We are reminded that preventing trafficking is a shared responsibility. Building fair and transparent labour markets, protecting workers’ rights and promoting ethical recruitment are essential steps towards ensuring that migration remains an opportunity, not a pathway to exploitation. Through cooperation between institutions, businesses, workers’ organisations and civil society across Europe, we can create safer working environments and reduce the vulnerabilities that traffickers seek to exploit.
Protecting migrant workers, promoting ethical recruitment and strengthening cooperation between institutions, employers, workers’ organisations and civil society are essential to building fair labour markets and preventing exploitation.
Through coordinated action across Europe, we can ensure that migration remains an opportunity for decent work and social inclusion rather than a pathway to abuse.