This national report is produced within the framework of "COALESCE: Legal, psycho-social and economic empowerment for the integration of women third-country nationals (TCN) victims of human trafficking (VoT) for sexual exploitation and abuse" (Coalesce Project EC AMIF:958133).

COALESCE is funded by the European Union Asylum, Migration and Integration Fund (AMIF) and implemented by a partnership consortium. The objective of the project is to provide support to female migrant victims of trafficking in human beings for sexual exploitation in Europe. By providing gender-specific psycho-social, legal and economic support and assistance to TCN women victims of sex trafficking, the project seeks to develop synergies and complementarities in facilitating needs identification, assistance and support, and to improve transnational cooperation among frontline professionals and practitioners.

There is a well-documented and acknowledged link between the assistance that the victims need and other factors such as their gender, the specific form of exploitation they have suffered, and their residence status (Directive 2011/36/EU). In fact, female victims of trafficking for sexual exploitation often have very complex needs (EC, 2016c; EIGE, 2018).

Thus, the gendered nature of human trafficking, as a form of gender-based violence, is a fundamental element of COALESCE’s conceptualisation and work programme. In responding to priority five of the AMIF1, the project focuses on the implications of developments in migration, especially within the context of protracted uncertainty and exacerbated social inequalities caused by the COVID-19 pandemic that affects the most vulnerable victims of human trafficking, in particular migrant women and children.