France
Background
France has a current national plan to fight exploitation and human trafficking running from 2024-2027.
France established a lead agency to combat exploitation, The Mission interministérielle pour la protection des femmes contre les violences et la lutte contre la traite des êtres humains (Inter-ministerial Mission for the Protection of Women against Violence and the Fight against Human Trafficking) (MIPROF).
MIPROF produces a regular annual report containing data collected from NGOs and updates on service provision.
The Ministerial Statistical Service for Internal Security also publish an annual report with data based on criminal statistics.
French trade and supply chains are primarily connected to Europe with some trade directly with the Africa, Americas and Asia, however it is unclear there is robust due diligence and investigation into exploitation existing in supply chains with European businesses. From publicly available information, investigation and enforcement of supply chains is very limited.
In 2017, the French government passed Loi de Vigilance ("Duty of Vigilance" law) that requires large companies (over 5,000 employees in France or 10,000 worldwide) to identify and prevent child labour abuses within their global supply chains. Companies must publish a plan to mitigate human rights risks, with legal liability for failing to act.
On 5 December 2023, La Poste became the first company convicted under the Duty of Vigilance Law. It is currently the only case.
France established the Office for the Fight against Illicit Trafficking of Migrants (OLTIM) specifically to conduct enforcement against human smugglers and traffickers. It has a newly created intelligence unit, CERTIM (Centre de Renseignement contre le Trafic Illicite de Migrants).
OLTIM coordinates with the National Directorate of the Border Police (DNPAF).
TRACFIN, France’s Financial Intelligence Unit, has stated it has heightened involvement in fighting complex organized crimes such human trafficking. However, no typologies are publicly available.
Other Key Factors
France faces considerable immigration and human smuggling/trafficking challenges and strategies and courses of action relating to human trafficking are linked to departments and agencies responsible for immigration and border control.
Wage theft does occur such as experienced by workers in the construction of facilities for the Paris Olympics in 2024.
Informal employment is low but very present among migrant communities.
Freedom of association and collective bargaining is lawful and active but has been repeatedly challenged.
To understand France’s situation more fully, we show the percentage of the population using the internet in France, along with the highest usage and lowest usage countries amongst the G20 members (Saudi Arabia and India).
France’s remittances are also shown with the respective highest and lowest inflow remittance countries in the G20 (India/Saudi Arabia) and the highest and lowest outflow countries in the G20 (US/Philippines). Keep in mind that remittance estimates are often an under count of actual remittance volume.(Graph unit is in Billion US$)
France’s Role in the Global Economy and Its Supply Chains
Trade flows from The Observatory of Economic Complexity. Remittance from the World Bank.