Author(s): Ciprian Coadă / Language(s): Romanian
Issue: 40/2025
The legal protection of the victims of human trafficking requires that, in the fulfillment of substantial positive obligations, states discourage infringements of fundamental rights and freedoms, by criminalizing some conduct with criminal significance, repress by international legal instruments.In the last decades, the criminalization of trafficking activities and the exploitation of vulnerable persons as criminal acts is an object of concern on the part of all states and even more so on the part of Romania, as a country facing a phenomenon, the diversity and extent of which is a unprecedented.Being at the intersection of several international trafficking routes, Romania has become in recent years not only a country of transit and recruitment of these victims, but also a country of destination for people looking for a better future and who, once drawn into various lucrative activities, can become targets of trafficking and victims of labor or other exploitation actions.Although it is not so publicized and is not yet under the special attention of the judicial bodies, the phenomenon of labor exploitation is felt in many sectors of activity in Romania, as a result of the appearance on the labor market of some workers who come from poorer countries, not as well remunerated and protected as Romanian employees.These new social realities require that the fight against the phenomenon of human trafficking also be carried out by combating criminal acts that affect the smooth running of employment relationships, among which is also the crime of hiring a person in the situation of illegal stay in Romania, knowing that she is a victim of human trafficking, provided by art.265 paragraph 2 of the Labour Code.Due to this fact, we have proposed that in the pages of this study we analyze one of the crimes that has retained less attention from Romanian doctrine, being aware that although this approach cannot exhaust the entire issue of the subject, it can prove extremely useful for legal practitioners and may be open to future debate.The usefulness of these debates also lies in the fact that the phenomenon of human trafficking is in a continuous dynamic, the clarification of the problems of the application of labor legislation contributing to the knowledge of the normative framework in the matter and to the consolidation of the vision that Directive 2011/36/EU of the European Parliament and The Council prints it in the matter of preventing, combating human trafficking and protecting its victims.
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