Thank you very much.
Good afternoon. I'm Kajsa Wahlberg. I'm a detective inspector and the national rapporteur to the Swedish government regarding trafficking in human beings.
This assignment was handed to the national police board in 1997 from the government because of a joint declaration within the EU. The Swedish government wanted reports on the trafficking situation in Sweden, the extent of the problem, and what could be done to combat trafficking more efficiently. Therefore we report annually to the government about the trafficking situation, and we also process and analyze intelligence information. To help us, we also have a special unit dealing specifically with crimes on the Internet.
I think one of the advantages of having the national rapporteur assignment within the police is that police have access to international networks like Interpol, Europol, and the Baltic Sea Task Force. But of course it depends on much reporting from a law enforcement angle.
For 2004 to 2006 the Swedish government earmarked 30 million Swedish kronor for the police to combat trafficking more efficiently. I think also that we appointed the national rapporteur at the right time, because in 1997 and 1998 a visa requirement was abolished for nationals from the Baltic countries, and we suddenly noticed that we had foreign women in street prostitution in Sweden. From that time, we have been working intensively with mapping out the situation in Sweden, and I think to date we have a very good picture regarding who the criminals are and who the victims are. We have been rather successful in investigating these types of crimes.