Behind the migrant hybrid attack, children are being trafficked

The European Commission refuses to give money for the construction of a fence on the eastern border, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees is demanding that Latvia, Lithuania and Poland stop the practice of detaining migrants and admit everyone. And at the same time, they avert their eyes from the fact that criminal groups are deliberately exploiting children.

Minors are purposefully exposed to the danger of death - cold, hunger, disease. And yet they are not separated from those who use them in such a way. It is the most serious form of human trafficking, which is supported and promoted by the UN and the EU, as well as the Latvian authorities, through their actions on humanitarian grounds.

What is human trafficking

The concept of human trafficking is very vague today. It does not only mean the physical employment of a person against his will but his use in a broader sense. The information resource created by the Ministry of the Interior states that “the origins of human trafficking can be traced back to the ancient past - slavery. The forms and types of slavery have changed considerably over time, but in essence, today human trafficking means the same thing as thousands of years ago: people selling people. The main purpose of human trafficking is the exploitation of a person, usually for profit. The exploitation of a person means the use of a person for a variety of purposes." And in this sense, the children used in the migration process are also victims of human trafficking. Adults bring them to the borders of the European Union by force and for a single purpose. A group of migrants who bring children with them has a better chance of being admitted to Latvia. In almost all cases when the Latvian authorities allow entry into Latvia, Muslim criminal groups are accompanied by children or a sick person or a person with a disability. Something that works on the Christian sense of humanity.

Humanely allowed crime

It is necessary to recall the legal wording on which the admission of illegal migrants in Latvia is based:

"On Tuesday, the border guard did not prevent two people from crossing the Latvian-Belarusian border illegally due to humanitarian reasons." Usually, the admitted groups are larger - five to six people. But this does not change the essence of the case - Latvian officials allow them to commit a serious crime, and children or representatives of other vulnerable groups are a means of committing this crime. Nevertheless, the children are not separated from these criminals who pretend to be or are their relatives. They are basically not rescued from violent relatives or strangers who deliberately put them at risk of starvation, cold, illness and death. Here is the explanation given to Neatkarīgā by the Ministry of the Interior why this case of human trafficking is not a case of human trafficking:

"The Convention on the Rights of the Child stipulates that Latvia must ensure that no child is separated from his or her parents against their will. Border guards are specially trained to recognize child abuse and act appropriately in situations where it is identified. Children admitted for humanitarian reasons have documents, and if the border guard does not identify them as fake, there is no reason to believe that they are not the real parents of the children. According to the Law on the Protection of the Children's Rights, every child has an inalienable right to a family. At the same time, for example, in situations when children end up in accommodation centers for foreigners, an orphan's court is involved, which determines the children's needs.” This is not a formal response from the civil service, but a political position, as the response was given by the office of the Minister of the Interior, Marija Golubeva.

To force us legally

It follows from this logic that if the traffickers are their parents, there is no need to prosecute them. A case had been initiated for child pornography on some criminal's phone, but not against dozens of migrants who use children to commit a crime. And they are abusing this political position of Latvia. Not all Latvian politicians consider the order of such things to be correct. Inese Lībiņa-Egnere, Deputy Speaker of the Saeima, commented on the situation of migrant children on the TV24 channel's program “Preses klubs”. She also works in the Committees on Legal Affairs and National Security, as well as heads the Latvian delegation to the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe. The number of people who are being taken to Minsk and then to the Lithuanian, Latvian and Polish borders is huge. They are accompanied by minors, and it is not known whether this is really a family or whether these children are being taken with them so that they cannot be refused entry into the European Union on humanitarian grounds.

"It is a very deliberate, inhumane and cynical treatment of the UN Refugee Convention to use it, based on past practice, and in a way to legally impose on us this scheme, which is in fact a human trafficking scheme."

Inese Lībiņa-Egnere emphasizes that organized crime is behind any case of human trafficking.

The main thing is the unity of the "family" of criminals

The institutions of the Ministry of the Interior and also the State Inspectorate for Protection of Children's Rights do not treat the use of children in this human trafficking scheme as a problem in Latvia. Firstly, because Article 15 of the Civil Law stipulates that “legal relations between parents and children shall be subject to Latvian law if the specified place of residence of the child is Latvia.” That is why the pornographic images of a migrant child on a migrant's phone refer to the Latvian authorities, but the very fact of using a migrant child in a human trafficking scheme does not. The State Inspectorate for Protection of Children's Rights explains that “in accordance with Section 59 (1.5.) of the Immigration Law if a detained foreigner has a child who has not been detained, on the basis of a request of the detained foreigner, in order to preserve family unity, the child may be placed in the accommodation center together with the detained foreigner." Thus, the family unity of migrants is more important than the involvement of children in a serious crime. Chief Inspector of the Children's Rights Protection Department of the Inspectorate Solvita Mortukāne explains it as follows:

"The fact that a person crosses the border illegally with a minor child cannot be treated as a violation of the rights of the child, which should result in the separation of the child from the family. On the other hand, if persons stay at the border but have not crossed it, the authorities even more so do not have the right to separate children from their parents or to participate in identity checks. In addition, we would like to inform you that SIPCR has previously applied to the institutions documenting and controlling the entry and stay of foreigners with a request to pay attention to ensuring the basic needs of children of foreigners.”

The ambassador passed away

The Inspectorate explanation sent to Neatkarīgā also describes in detail how in the process of expulsion of a minor, if they travel without parents, the state authorities take care to ensure the rights and interests of the child. And how, according to the Immigration Law, the border guard contacts the diplomatic or consular mission of the country, the relevant competent authorities or non-governmental organizations that monitor the rights of the child in that country after ascertaining the child's identity and nationality or country of residence. In the context of the current migration crisis, a very important nuance should be mentioned here. The vast majority of migrants at the Latvian border are arriving from Iraq, but there is little talk of Iraq's own responsibility. Only of Russia and Belarus, which use Iraqi citizens in the human trafficking scheme. And there is probably quite a prosaic reason for this. The current Latvian ambassador to Iraq has passed away, while a new non-resident ambassador has not yet been appointed.

However, there are talks with Iraq

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs explains that in connection with the migration crisis, information is also exchanged with Iraq:

"In order to discuss the current migration challenges on the European Union's border with Belarus, several talks between Latvian and Iraqi Foreign Ministers E. Rinkēvičs and F. Hussein took place (telephone conversations on August 6 and 26, 2021, meeting during the 76th session of the UN General Assembly in New York on September 23), as well as contacts at other levels (for example, a telephone conversation between the State Secretaries of the Ministries of Foreign Affairs of Latvia and Iraq on August 27). The embassies of both countries in Warsaw have also been an important channel of diplomatic communication for a long time in Latvia's relations with Iraq - in this way we have also solved the situation related to the Lukashenko regime's hybrid attacks on the EU (for example, the Latvian ambassador to Poland met with the Latvian accredited ambassador of Iraq in Warsaw). There is also a regular and direct exchange of information between the Ministries of Foreign Affairs of the two countries."

Unfortunately, unlike the diplomatic information circulating in both directions, the sending of illegal migrants from Iraq is currently taking place in only one direction - to Latvia, Lithuania and Poland.

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