• Vigorously investigate and prosecute trafficking crimes and seek adequate penalties for convicted traffickers, which should involve significant prison terms.
• Improve sentencing practices by increasing training for judges on the severity of trafficking crimes and the importance of applying penalties available under the trafficking law.
• Develop and implement a standardized national identification and referral procedure to refer all victims to appropriate care and train officials on its use across all states.
• Ensure victims are not inappropriately penalized solely for unlawful acts committed as a direct result of being trafficked, including immigration violations.
• Provide systematic anti-trafficking training for front-line officials – including prosecutors, judges, law enforcement, and immigration officers – on victim-centered, trauma-informed approaches to criminal proceedings, the non-punishment principle, and proactive screening for trafficking indicators among vulnerable populations – especially children, undocumented migrants, and asylum-seekers.
• Increase the availability of specialized shelter and services for all victims, including children, men, and other vulnerable populations.
• Implement and consistently enforce strong regulations and oversight of labor recruitment companies, including eliminating recruitment fees charged to migrant workers and increasing efforts to hold fraudulent labor recruiters criminally accountable.
• Increase trafficking survivors’ access to restitution and compensation, including by encouraging prosecutors to systematically request restitution for victims during trials.
• Designate specialized prosecutors, judges, and additional law enforcement units with specific expertise on trafficking cases to improve anti-trafficking law enforcement efforts.
• Develop and maintain a uniform and comprehensive database to accurately track and report the government’s anti-trafficking statistics and improve information sharing and targeted anti-trafficking approaches among relevant government agencies.
• Appoint a national coordinating body responsible to harmonize policy implementation and coordination at the federal and state levels for all forms of trafficking.
• Increase survivor input when forming policies, programs, and trainings.

The government maintained anti-trafficking law enforcement efforts.

The Offences Against Personal Freedom chapter of the criminal code criminalized sex trafficking and labor trafficking and prescribed punishments of six months to 10 years’ imprisonment, which were sufficiently stringent and, with regard to sex trafficking, commensurate with penalties prescribed for other grave crimes, such as rape. The law did not require proof of force, fraud, or coercion to prosecute suspected sex traffickers when victims were younger than 21 years old.

The government did not maintain a centralized law enforcement data collection system on trafficking crimes, hindering its ability to disaggregate human trafficking statistics and likely resulting in underreporting in anti-trafficking prosecution statistics. Federal and state law enforcement completed 342 trafficking investigations of 521 suspects in 2023, the most recent year available for comprehensive government statistics; this was a decrease compared with 388 investigations of 586 suspects in 2022. Of the 342 investigations, law enforcement investigated 43 labor trafficking cases and 299 sex trafficking cases, including at least 33 child sex trafficking investigations. Law enforcement proactively identified fewer cases (50 percent) in 2023, compared with the previous year (54 percent). Experts reported most trafficking cases went unreported to law enforcement. Even for cases in which a court convicted a defendant of multiple crimes, the government recorded only the charge with the highest statutory sentence. The government provided prosecution and conviction statistics for trafficking cases when a trafficking offense was the primary or secondary charge.

The government prosecuted 203 suspected traffickers in 2023, compared with 248 prosecutions in 2022 (223 in 2021). This included 82 suspected traffickers with trafficking as the primary charge and 121 with trafficking as the secondary charge. Courts convicted 143 traffickers, including 51 traffickers with trafficking as the primary charge and 92 traffickers with trafficking as the secondary charge, compared with 196 in 2022 and 2021. Of the 143 traffickers convicted, courts convicted 63 for sex trafficking, 44 for labor trafficking, and 36 for unspecified forms of trafficking. The government did not report any investigations, prosecutions, or convictions of government employees complicit in human trafficking crimes.

The government only recorded sentencing information for convictions with trafficking as the primary charge; this likely lowered the average length of sentences reported. Of the 51 traffickers convicted in 2023 with trafficking as the primary charge, 77 percent (39 traffickers) received either probation (20), a fine (eight), less than one year’s imprisonment (one), or alternative corrective measures for juveniles (10), compared with 63 percent in 2022 (74 percent in 2021). Courts sentenced only 12 traffickers (24 percent) to more than one year’s imprisonment, compared with 37 percent in 2022 (26 percent in 2021). In comparison, courts sentenced 46 percent of rapists convicted in 2023 (363 out of 792) to at least one year’s imprisonment. Judges typically suspended sentences of less than two years for most crimes, including human trafficking, particularly for first-time offenders. This practice undercut efforts to hold traffickers accountable, weakened deterrence, created potential security and safety concerns for victims, and was not equal to the seriousness of the crime.

The federal criminal police (BKA) had dedicated human trafficking investigators. Most, but not all, states had dedicated anti-trafficking police units; at least two states had specialized prosecution units. In its 2024 report, GRETA urged the government to designate additional specialized personnel, including judges, and provide systematic training for police officers, prosecutors, judges, and other front-line officials. Jurisdiction for criminal prosecutions in Germany rested with state courts, and, consequently, procedures, staffing, and resources varied from state to state. The length of court cases also varied by state. According to GRETA’s 2024 report, counseling centers reported some victims waited between five and 12 years for trials of traffickers. Protracted court cases were sometimes dismissed because of the statute of limitations or victims choosing not to participate in prolonged proceedings.

The complex wording and scope of the trafficking and exploitation sections in the criminal code (Sections 232 to 233a) in some cases resulted in state prosecutors dismissing cases or charging suspected traffickers with crimes considered easier to prove, such as tax evasion, migrant smuggling, or ”exploitation of prostitutes.” Most criminal proceedings relied heavily on victim testimony. The number of prosecutions compared with investigations remained comparatively low. Government efforts to address labor trafficking remained inadequate despite the suspected scale of the problem, and judges continued issuing lenient sentences to labor traffickers. Authorities sometimes viewed victims exploited in forced criminality and foreign victims without residence permits primarily as criminal suspects.

The government, in partnership with government-funded civil society organizations, provided anti-trafficking training to police, prosecutors, Financial Monitoring Unit to Combat Illicit Employment (FKS) officials, victim services providers, and asylum center staff on a variety of topics, including case identification, technology-facilitated trafficking, child trafficking, victim protection procedures, and the non-punishment principle. The BKA held training seminars for more than 100 law enforcement officials on special topics, such as anti-trafficking legal provisions, presenting cases at trial, sentencing practices, trafficking vulnerabilities, and post-traumatic stress disorder. The government also convened workshops for anti-trafficking experts, including police and prosecutors, in four states. The German Judicial Academy held a workshop for judges and prosecutors on sex trafficking and regularly offered anti-trafficking courses, including victim protection. States oversaw training requirements for prosecutors and judges, and most states did not require additional trainings after judicial appointments. Some state prosecutors reported judges required further training on human trafficking. The BKA maintained an information portal for federal and state police forces with information on current trends, guidelines, and investigative tools for combating trafficking. In collaboration with an international organization, the BKA also continued developing virtual reality training courses for law enforcement officers on victim identification and internet-facilitated trafficking crimes. Despite providing training on combating technology-enabled trafficking, civil society reported most front-line officials lacked the necessary technical skills to investigate such crimes.

State law enforcement reported executing mutual legal assistance requests in cooperation with foreign law enforcement counterparts. Federal- and state-level police continued to cooperate with EU agencies and international operations, including through “joint action days,” but authorities did not report identifying any trafficking cases in Germany during these operations.

The government slightly decreased victim protection efforts.

In 2023, the most recent year for which comprehensive statistics were available, state government authorities identified 596 trafficking victims during investigations, a decrease compared with 1,532 in 2022 (581 in 2021). Authorities attributed the decline in statistics to a comparative rise in the previous year following a large-scale investigation of the beverage logistics sector that resulted in the identification of 555 labor trafficking victims. Of the 596 victims identified in 2023, traffickers exploited 406 in sex trafficking (476 in 2022) and 190 in labor trafficking (1,019 in 2022). Ninety-five percent of sex trafficking victims were female, and at least 202 victims were children (17 or younger). Similar to previous years, most sex trafficking victims were from Germany (123), Romania (64), and Bulgaria (51); authorities also identified victims from China, Ukraine, Thailand, Vietnam, and Hungary. The government did not report comprehensive demographic information for the 190 labor trafficking victims; however, at least 11 were children. Experts noted official victim identification statistics did not reflect the true scale of human trafficking due to the absence of a comprehensive data collection approach.

Regarding the victim identification and referral process, the government did not have national victim identification or referral guidelines. At the federal level, officials had procedures to identify and refer victims to care, but state-level entities provided most victim care. Each state had a separate system to refer victims to either state-run support or NGOs, and several states had written identification guidelines. These disparate processes resulted in inconsistent referral to services across states. Twelve of 16 states had formal cooperation agreements between police and NGOs, but not all agreements included all forms of trafficking, such as labor trafficking, forced begging, and forced criminality.

Federal Police Office, Federal Agency for Migration and Refugees (BAMF), and BKA officials began using victim identification manuals in 2024, and the government distributed the manuals to police officers across the country. The government had a national cooperation strategy for child victims of trafficking and exploitation, which functioned as a referral mechanism; the government continued funding an NGO to implement the strategy across all states. The Berlin state government created a specialized child trafficking protection unit, convening youth services, justice system officials, schools, health services, and other front-line officials to promote the identification and protection of child victims.

Civil society reported front-line officials sometimes lacked training to adequately identify and refer victims, especially in forced criminality, forced begging, and within legalized commercial sex. Law enforcement and public authorities without specialized training were unlikely to identify victims via incidental contact and were more likely to penalize them for crimes committed as a direct result of being trafficked.

The government provided victim services primarily through state-funded NGOs, such as KOK. KOK comprised 43 member organizations, including specialized counseling centers and women’s shelters, and acted as a coordinating entity for anti-trafficking NGOs. KOK published an annual report collating national trafficking victim assistance data from 19 of 43 government-funded, specialized counseling centers. According to KOK’s 2023 report, the centers reported assisting at least 702 trafficking and exploitation victims, compared with at least 875 victims in 2022. Of the 597 victims for which demographic information was available, the centers assisted 230 new victims in 2023, while the remaining victims began receiving care in prior years. Most victims assisted by the counseling centers were women (87 percent), and 14 percent of victims were children (younger than 18) at the time of exploitation. Forty-eight percent of victims who received assistance were from West Africa, including 33 percent from Nigeria; only 7.5 percent of victims were from Germany.

The federal government allocated €569,814 ($592,940) to KOK’s management operations in 2024, a slight increase compared with €546,578 ($568,760) the previous year. Although comprehensive data was not reported, states allocated additional funding to anti-trafficking NGOs. NGOs operated specialized counseling centers in all 16 states and provided a range of services, including psycho-social support, shelter provision or referral, information on victims’ rights, legal assistance, support during legal proceedings, vocational support, documentation assistance, reintegration support, and referral to other services. Civil society continued to report staffing and funding were insufficient for operational needs, requiring some NGOs to stop accepting new clients. Victims sometimes had to wait for longer periods to access government services, especially accommodations and psychological care. Civil society continued to report shelter availability for all trafficking victims was severely inadequate and varied by state. A 2024 government report found only eight of 16 federal states funded shelters for trafficking victims, and not all states offered counseling services for victims of all forms of trafficking. There was a lack of shelter services for men, whom authorities often referred to shelters for individuals experiencing homelessness or hostels and who sometimes faced unsafe conditions. Civil society noted many rural areas continued to lack trafficking-specific resources. Advocates reported specialized services for children and shelter for families; individuals who identify as lesbian, gay, or bisexual; and persons with disabilities were also insufficient. The government lacked adequate accommodations and services for all unaccompanied minors arriving in Germany; as a result, authorities sometimes placed the children in hostels without adult supervision and without appointed legal guardians, which increased their vulnerability to trafficking. Access to services was not dependent on cooperation with law enforcement proceedings. While foreign victims were legally entitled to the same benefits as German victims, civil society reported, in practice, benefits were not always accessible. Additionally, the government required foreign victims from outside the EU to obtain temporary residence permits that authorized access to employment and continuing education.

BAMF maintained written procedures to screen for trafficking indicators in the asylum protection system and refer victims to government-funded NGO counseling centers. It had more than 270 specially-trained case workers to identify and support potential trafficking victims. However, BAMF officers did not always contact the specialized case workers in a timely manner or prior to deportation hearings, and BAMF officers sometimes deported trafficking victims after authorities had identified them. Civil society noted non-specialized immigration and police officers rarely identified trafficking victims among migrants and asylum-seekers. GRETA urged the government to provide systematic training for reception center staff on identifying trafficking victims among asylum-seekers.

The government offered foreign victims, including those without documentation, a reflection period of three months to decide if they would testify in court. However, NGOs and GRETA noted authorities did not always uniformly apply the reflection period, especially for labor trafficking victims, nor did they systematically inform victims of their rights. In 2023, KOK reported that, of the 243 cases for which information was available, 53 victims applied for a reflection period (versus 151 in 2022), and 38 were approved (versus 135 in 2022). NGOs attributed this decline to increased difficulty applying for a reflection period; rules for granting a reflection period varied by state, and authorities often required victims to cooperate with law enforcement. The government offered victim-witness assistance, including interpretation, psycho-social services, and legal counseling, to victims who chose to participate in criminal justice proceedings. However, access to legal services varied by state, and lawyers representing victims did not typically accompany them to law enforcement interviews. In its 2024 report, GRETA noted the government conditioned adult labor trafficking victims’ access to legal assistance during criminal proceedings on proof of lack of financial means to pay for a lawyer and whether the case had a sufficient prospect of success; these conditions also applied to victims whose cases were reclassified as a less serious crime, such as “exploitation of prostitutes” or withholding wages. Victims could apply for legal assistance for civil, administrative, labor, and social court proceedings under these conditions.

NGOs reported there was a shortage of qualified interpreters and few received specialized training on human trafficking. Some states allowed victims to submit video testimony; however, video testimony was subject to judicial discretion, and judges rarely allowed it unless the victim was a child. While the government had a guide for child-friendly criminal proceedings and interviewing, NGOs reported some law enforcement and judges used trauma-insensitive tactics, including interrogating victims as criminals or discriminating against persons for becoming trafficking victims. The government granted temporary residency permits to victims who agreed to testify through the duration of the trial. The law provided legal alternatives to removal to countries in which victims would face hardship or retribution after the trial was completed; however, the law was inconsistently applied across states. Victims who chose not to participate in law enforcement proceedings could apply for residence on humanitarian or other grounds as stipulated by the law.

Authorities in some cases penalized victims of trafficking for unlawful acts committed as a direct result of being trafficked. Section 154(c) of the German Code of Criminal Procedure exempted victims from prosecution for minor criminal offenses committed as a direct result of being trafficked; however, law enforcement and prosecutors often lacked awareness of this provision and applied it inconsistently. Section 154(c) did not apply to cases in which a trafficking victim was compelled to commit a crime with a penalty of at least one year’s imprisonment, increasing the likelihood the government penalized victims of forced criminality. In one case, civil society reported a court convicted a victim after traffickers forced her to transfer money using another person’s identification documents. In some cases, prosecutors agreed to discontinue prosecution of victims if they cooperated in law enforcement proceedings. Some authorities deported identified trafficking victims who were in the country without a residence permit regardless of their circumstances. Section 87 of the German Residency Act required public entities, including courts, to report undocumented persons; as a result, NGOs reported undocumented victims often feared obtaining medical care or initiating claims for lost wages. As underscored in GRETA’s 2024 report, the criminalization of trafficking victims violated the government’s obligation to assist victims, discouraged victims from coming forward and cooperating with law enforcement, and it impeded efforts to hold traffickers accountable.

The government continued to lack comprehensive statistics on compensation and restitution awarded to victims. The government did not require prosecutors to systematically request restitution during criminal trials, and the government did not report awarding restitution to any victims. Subject to certain requirements, victims could join criminal trials as joint plaintiffs to pursue civil remedies as part of the criminal proceedings. However, the government did not report whether any victims filed civil suits or whether courts awarded damages to any victims. Traffickers often claimed inability to pay restitution owed to victims, leaving victims with little recourse. A New Social Compensation Law within the German Social Code replaced the Victims Compensation act, facilitating access to services such as psychotherapeutic help, medical treatment, participation benefits, or compensation payments for victims of violent crimes, including trafficking and psychological violence. The new law also created a legal basis for structural government cooperation with specialized counseling centers and support services. However, the government did not report providing compensation to any victims. According to GRETA’s 2024 report, victims had to pay a fee to file a claim in civil court, and labor exploitation victims filing compensation for unpaid wages before a labor court were required to pay for their own lawyer. If courts awarded victim compensation, the burden fell on victims to reclaim the award from the traffickers.

The government modestly increased overall efforts to prevent trafficking.

Prevention efforts were distributed across different ministries; the Federal Ministry for Families, Seniors, Women, and Youth coordinated international human trafficking efforts and national efforts on sex trafficking, while the Federal Ministry of Labor and Social Affairs coordinated efforts on labor trafficking. The government also had three federal-state interagency working groups that coordinated with each other and collectively addressed all forms of trafficking; each group convened at least once during the reporting period. However, the lack of a national coordinating body impeded overall anti-trafficking efforts, including federal-state coordination, data collection and reporting, and policy implementation. The government adopted the country’s first NAP; the 2024-2028 NAP included four focus areas – prevention, prosecution, victim support, and international cooperation – and placed emphasis on trafficking vulnerabilities of three groups: women, children, and refugees and migrants.

The Human Trafficking Reporting Unit continued to function as the independent national rapporteur, and it published its first report in October 2024. The report was Germany’s first systematic data compilation and analysis and covered activities from 2020 to 2022; during this time period, the report found authorities identified 3,155 trafficking victims, provided counseling services to 2,652 new victims, and charged 509 alleged traffickers. The report highlighted a lack of standardized data collection and sharing between federal and state levels and with civil society. The government made limited efforts to conduct national anti-trafficking awareness campaigns. The federal government did not have a trafficking-specific hotline but continued to operate a hotline for women affected by violence 24 hours per day and in 19 languages; in 2023, the hotline received calls from 136 potential trafficking victims, compared with 120 in 2022. In addition, the government operated several other national and regional hotlines for child sexual abuse and male victims of violence, including trafficking, and a government-funded NGO operated a national helpline for migrant workers; however, the government did not report trafficking statistics for these hotlines.

Fraudulent labor recruitment of migrant workers and inadequate oversight and accountability remained of concern. During the previous reporting period, the government adopted an ordinance allowing the Federal Employment Agency to impose stronger sanctions against recruitment and employment agencies that violated the law; however, the government did not report initiating any investigations of fraudulent labor recruiters. Civil society reported authorities identified and prosecuted a company exploiting migrant workers; however, the company reportedly declared insolvency, re-opened under a different name, and continued exploiting the workers. Private labor recruiters did not require a license to operate. The law prohibited recruitment fees for temporary or limited part-time workers, but it allowed recruitment agencies to charge fees to non-temporary foreign migrants between €150 ($180) and €2,000 ($2,080). Foreign workers needed prior government permission, via a new residence permit, before changing employers, which may have increased their vulnerability to trafficking.

The federal government continued allocating €1.5 million ($1.56 million) over a three-year period to the NGO-run Service Center against Labor Exploitation, Forced Labor, and Trafficking (Servicestelle). The Servicestelle coordinated public awareness, training, and capacity building efforts on labor trafficking, and it maintained an online platform with information and resources for victims and front-line officials. It also issued a yearly report analyzing vulnerabilities within different sectors, with this year’s report focused on the road transportation and cleaning sectors. There was no agency dedicated to conducting labor inspections. The FKS was responsible for inspecting and investigating exploitative working conditions, including human trafficking, as well as other policing and auditing tasks. The Central Customs Authority continued training FKS officials on identifying trafficking victims. FKS officials inspected migrant worker employment and living conditions and screened for labor trafficking; however, experts noted FKS also investigated other crimes, including illegal work, which may have resulted in foreign workers being treated as suspects rather than trafficking victims. Authorities conducted annual in-person interviews of domestic workers employed by embassies in Germany, without employers present, to inform workers of their rights. Civil society continued to urge the government to prioritize efforts to raise awareness and increase protections for this vulnerable population. The government continued to fund an advisory and outreach service on workers’ rights targeting migrant and seasonal workers.

The Human Rights Due Diligence in Supply Chains Act required all companies with more than 1,000 employees to exercise due diligence to ensure their supply chains did not use forced labor; the Federal Office for Economic Affairs and Export Control oversaw enforcement efforts, including conducting inspections and issuing fines for noncompliance. The government contributed funding to several anti-trafficking programs abroad, including in the Western Balkans, Ukraine, and countries in Central Asia and the Horn of Africa. The government did not provide anti-trafficking training to its diplomatic personnel, nor did it provide anti-trafficking training to its troops prior to their deployment as peacekeepers. The government did not make efforts to reduce the demand for commercial sex acts. The government made efforts to reduce the demand for participation in extraterritorial child sexual exploitation and abuse by its citizens by funding NGO awareness campaigns; it also cooperated with national and international law enforcement bodies to monitor offenders and identify emerging trends.

Trafficking affects all communities. This section summarizes government and civil society reporting on the nature and scope of trafficking over the past five years. Human traffickers exploit domestic and foreign victims in Germany. Traffickers exploit German citizens and foreign nationals, primarily from Eastern Europe, Southeast Asia, and West Africa, in sex trafficking. Traffickers fraudulently recruit victims online, including through social media, messaging platforms, and online advertisements, for modeling or talent agencies. Sex traffickers increasingly exploit victims in residences or hotels versus public spaces, such as bars or brothels. Authorities continue to report young male traffickers coerce girls and women into sex trafficking under the guise of a romantic relationship. Romani children are sometimes exploited in sex trafficking by family members. Women from China and Vietnam are particularly vulnerable to sex trafficking, and advocates reported some migrants are more vulnerable to sex trafficking based on their sexual orientation or identity; traffickers often mislead victims regarding working conditions and wages prior to their arrival. Sex traffickers increasingly exploit South American women, especially Venezuelans, in Germany. Highly organized criminal groups, sometimes linked to Nigerian cult organizations or confraternities, fraudulently recruit and exploit Nigerian women and girls in sex trafficking throughout Europe, including Germany. Several foreign governments have reported German citizens engage in extraterritorial sexual exploitation and abuse abroad.

Traffickers exploit migrants, especially Eastern Europeans, in forced labor in the logistics sector, catering and food services, meat industry, construction, nursing and caregiving, and seasonal work, including in agriculture and hospitality. Domestic workers from eastern Europe, especially Poland, are vulnerable to trafficking. Traffickers also exploit Eastern Europeans in forced criminality and begging. Traffickers exploit Vietnamese men and women in forced labor, primarily in nail salons. Traffickers exploit Ukrainian refugees in sex trafficking, and Ukrainian children are also vulnerable to trafficking. Migrants and refugees are especially vulnerable to trafficking upon arrival in Germany.