Sweden´s moral responsibility to protect Romanian victims of trafficking for sexual exploitation in Sweden

Abstract: Trafficking in persons is a serious crime and a serious violation of human rights. Every year, thousands of men, women and children fall into the hands of traffickers, in their own countries and abroad. Trafficking in human beings (THB) can be about forced labour, sexual slavery and/or commercial sexual exploitation, but this this paper focuses on the latter category. One country in Eastern Europe with an exceptionally high proportion of women and children trafficked into Sweden each year is Romania. The purpose of the following study is therefore to investigate what moral responsibility – if any – Sweden has to protect the female part of the victims from Romania being trafficked for sexual purposes in Sweden. They are not Swedish citizens, and that makes it a complicated question. In making an effort to come up with answers, we will have a look at what Sweden is doing for these people today, and what the options look like going forward, if indeed the responsibilty is ours. This is an academic thesis with one normative and one empirical aspect. Normative theoretical principles of global justice, ethics and human dignity from American philosopher Martha Nussbaum are tested on an empirical problem; a case study about the situation for Romanian trafficking victims in Sweden and Norway. Apart from the theory and case study, I have exclusively used applied ethics, secondary sources and an analytical tool to analyze and dissect the problem, reaching the conclusion that Sweden does have a moral responsibility, and that we therefore should continue to work in these people´s favour. However, more so that now by assisting solution solving in Romania, where the biggest problems exist and the best solutions can be expected, if handled intelligently and with ethics in mind.