In a report published regarding the situation in 2023, in the countries that make up the Council of Europe, GRETA was concerned about the “difficulties in accessing legal assistance for undocumented migrants due to long waiting periods to obtain residency”.

According to Helga Gayer, president of Greta, “access to legal assistance and free legal assistance is essential to facilitate and guarantee access to justice”, but this resource “is not available to some victims of human trafficking, nor to all relevant processes”.

In Portugal, according to the report, “the procedure to be declared eligible for legal aid by the Social Security Institute can take several months” and access is prohibited to “foreign victims of human trafficking” if “they do not have a residence and a social security number”.

In the Portuguese case, victims “have the right to free access to the National Health System and to obtain psychological support”, but there is still much to be done at the judicial level, the main focus of the GRETA report, referring to 2023.

Despite this, “the number of criminal prosecutions and convictions for trafficking in human beings has increased” and judges are “obliged to update their qualifications through continuous training” which includes “a training course” specific to the topic, highlights the report.

Furthermore, in Portugal, GRETA states, the “statute of particularly vulnerable victims” was published, which includes victims of trafficking, with “very complete” information, which indicates not only which rights are guaranteed, but also how to access them in practice, including the rights to legal assistance, compensation, protective measures, translation or interpretation.

“Victims of human trafficking are considered particularly vulnerable victims in criminal proceedings” in Portugal and “have the right to provide statements for future reference”, even in the pre-trial phase, which can be used in the trial.

However, in the introduction to the report, the president of GRETA highlighted that in all countries there is “a lack of trained and specialised lawyers to represent victims of trafficking”.