In recent years trafficking in human beings has become an issue of increasingconcern to European states. Trafficking in human beings is understood as ahuman rights issue, a violation of labour and migration laws, and as underminingnational and international security through its links to organised crime andcorruption.

United Nations agencies, the European Union, the Council of Europe and theOrganisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe, amongst others, makeimportant contributions to coordinating the fight against human trafficking.However, there remain significant deficits in concrete information sharing andcooperation between the security agencies of different states necessary to achieve success. In many countries, cooperation among local security sector actors, other state agencies and non governmental organisations has improved. However, ensuring that the human rights of trafficking victims are protected requires more substantial training and specialised operational procedures within the security sector.

This paper brings a governance analysis to security sector responses to humantrafficking. It focuses on security governance approaches concerningcriminalisation and harmonisation of laws, prosecution of traffickers, protectionof trafficked persons, prevention in countries of origin and prevention incountries of destination. The authors identify key shortcomings in current securityresponses to human trafficking, and make recommendations to states with aparticular focus on national and international coordination and the prevention ofhuman trafficking.