UNICEF France calls on institutions to protect minors who are victims of criminal exploitation rather than punishing them

Protect rather than punish. This is what UNICEF France is advocating in a report published Wednesday, July 30, entitled "Victims first, protecting children against criminal exploitation." The starting point is two recent cases: that of a Marseille drug trafficking network, whose members are being prosecuted for having reduced two teenagers to slavery in 2022, and that of the Trocadéro, in which six defendants were convicted of human trafficking in 2024, after having forced unaccompanied minors to steal for them.

"They were minors living on the streets ," explains Noémie Ninnin, a protection-justice advocacy officer at the French branch of UNICEF. "Exploiters housed them, fed them, and then gave them drugs, initially for free." That's when the spiral began: addiction drove them to commit crimes. "It's chemical influence, which is what human trafficking is all about," she continues.

However, "the judicial system frequently favors accelerated procedures and repressive measures to the detriment of socio-educational solutions," the report notes. The perpetrators are judged, or even condemned, while they are victims of exploitation for criminal purposes. It is precisely on this point that UNICEF France has worked by hearing magistrates, lawyers, doctors, associations, detailing international law concerning children and drawing inspiration from what is done in neighboring countries, to formulate 75 recommendations to public authorities.

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