Trafficking in human beings a real threat to the national security. The main priorities of the European Union’s strategy towards the eradication of trafficking in human beings

Human trafficking is a multifaceted crime and an illegal business that undermine the rule of law and creates instability and insecurity. Over the last few decades, human trafficking has become the third largest transnational crime and a main source of income for criminal organizations at international level. Although this form of massive violation of human rights has been recognized and condemned by the international community, national authorities continue to develop policies that do not respond to the dynamics of this worldwide phenomenon, especially since many governments misunderstand this complex issue and implement ineffective mechanisms against human trafficking, as is the situation of Romania. Modern slavery destroys the life of victims and undermines the national economies, while generating billions of euro that come from illegal exploitation and abuse of the trafficked persons. Most often, the money from this type of crime are used to support other illegal activities such as corruption and other forms of transnational crimes or to pay members of the network, to create last generation logistics required for communication and transport, to bribe some state agents and, often, to ensure the legal assistance necessary in order to obtain the freedom of traffickers or to negotiate a more favorable sentence for them. In the recent years, trafficking in human beings has grown rapidly worldwide, mainly because of globalization, affecting human security and thus national security. In recent decades, this has become an important issue of debate among the international community of experts, government officials, non-governmental and intergovernmental organizations, and among scientists. The current paper presents the evolution of EU policies for combating human trafficking.