In this collaborative project, researchers from Finland, Norway, and Sweden will study practical recommendations and innovative solutions targeting work-related crime and improving workplace environments, with a special emphasis on combating labor exploitation.

The project studies Norwegian political development and efforts to combat the exploitation of labor immigrants, including the effects of increased inter-agency cooperation and control activities in the fight against human trafficking, social dumping, and work-related crime. To put the Norwegian example into perspective, comparisons will be made with other Nordic countries.

Labour migrants are vulnerable in the limited and pressured Norwegian housing rental market. Rental prices have risen sharply, especially in the last two years. Around half of migrant workers from Poland, Lithuania, Latvia and Romania rent housing.

In this project, Fafo summarizes the forms labour trafficking takes in Norway today, and what is known about the relationship between recruitment practices and forced labour and labour trafficking.

The project will test a methodology to estimate the extent of human trafficking in Norway and contribute to better regional and international estimates by participating in the work of the UN Office on Drugs and Organised Crime (UNODC) to develop Multiple Systems Estimation (MSE) in different countries and regions. There are currently no such reliable estimates of human trafficking in Norway and there is a high demand for reliable statistics in this area. MSE is a variant of the capture-recapture method, which UNODC has adapted to data on human trafficking.

In this research project, Fafo will contribute to the increased knowledge about the prevalence of and efforts against human trafficking for labour exploitation.

This project will explore what assistance is offered and needed today, and how to best understand and contextualise developments in social work.