Towards an Understanding of Human Trafficking: Perspectives on the Social Work Policies Regarding the Victims of this Phenomenon in Post-Modern Romania

Human trafficking is a topic that interests each of us, since it involves several dimensions: legal, sociological, economic, psychological, etc. Nowadays, more and more activities of governmental structures are focused on this topic, which is why, no matter how debated the topic may be, we consider that there are still issues that need to be debated. In this article we examine the topic of human trafficking from the point of view of social work services in Romania. We analyze the difficulties of identifying victims of human trafficking, the gaps in the social assistance services system, as well as the legal perspective on gender issues and beyond. We will also consider a number of issues that we consider priorities for improving social services standards, in order to combat trafficking in human beings, specialized training of professionals in the legal and social work professions, creating opportunities for social reinsertion of victims, and creating institutional support from specialists in such issues. We will also highlight the fact that in Romania, in order to increase the rate of convictions in cases of human trafficking and to reduce the impact of these crimes on victims, an institutional framework should be drafted according to European standards, that is to say the significant increase of the investigative efforts, criminal prosecution and conviction of traffickers etc.