Response to interpellation 2025/26:232 on the police's actions against women exploited in prostitution
Translated from Swedish by AI; the translation may contain errors. The Swedish text is the original.
Summary AI, written in advance
The debate concerns the police's actions against women who are exploited in prostitution and human trafficking. M argues that these are serious crimes that violate human rights 1. M believes that the police must have special consideration for women in vulnerable situations 2 and that the current police growth should be used to meet the violence against women 3. M argues that the new regulation enables effective exchange of information 3 and that work is being done long-term through government mandates 4. V argues that women have not had their rights met at the border police 5. V believes that the right to a reflection period is not respected 5 and that 14 million kronor is too little 6. V argues that the issues must be included structurally in the system 7.
Written by AI in advance and may contain errors. The numbers lead to the speech a statement builds on; check against the text below.
Justitieministern Gunnar Strömmer (M)
Madam Speaker! Samuel Gonzalez Westling has asked me whether I intend to take any measures to ensure that the police follow existing legislation to protect people who have been exploited or are at risk of being exploited in sex trafficking and, if so, which ones, as well as whether I intend to reintroduce the police's previous reporting requirements regarding the purchase of sexual acts in the authority's regulatory letter.
Let me first emphasize that human trafficking and human exploitation, not least exploitation for sexual purposes, are very serious crimes that violate fundamental human rights. And the purchase of sexual acts often involves a cynical and ruthless exploitation of persons who are already in a vulnerable situation. The Government therefore decided already in June last year to task the Police Authority and the Prosecution Authority with strengthening the work against human trafficking and human exploitation.
The purpose of the assignment is, among other things, for the authorities to improve their working methods to increase investigative capacity and prosecution but also to ensure that victims receive the correct support and protection. The assignment also includes that the Swedish Police Authority shall strengthen proactive and preventive activities, both physically and digitally. The assignment shall be final-reported by October 1 of this year at the latest.
In the Police Authority's regulatory letter for 2026, there is also a reporting requirement regarding how the authority's ability to prevent, deter, investigate, and prosecute crimes has developed, concerning among other things men's violence against women and the purchase of sexual acts.
In the budget bill for 2026 (prop. 2025/26:1), the government also strengthens the funding for the upcoming action plan against prostitution and human trafficking, which is currently being prepared within the Government Offices. For the years 2026–2028, it concerns 14 million kronor that are allocated specifically for that action plan. It shall have a special focus on children and young people and aim to prevent and combat exploitation in prostitution and human trafficking but also strengthen the support and protection for vulnerable persons.
As late as December, the government received an investigation that is of great interest to the issues we are discussing here today. The investigation is titled A new crime and other measures against human trafficking (SOU 2025:119). In it, there are proposals on how changes in the EU's human trafficking directive can be implemented here in Sweden and how the work against human trafficking can be improved. The investigation proposes, for example, that it should become a crime to order or utilize services provided by victims of human trafficking or human exploitation. The report is out for consultation until March 17, 2026. After that, we shall appropriately take that work further.
It is a high priority for the government to counter human trafficking regardless of the purpose. It concerns a very serious type of crime that is often committed by well-organized criminal networks. The government is working both broadly and with force against serious and organized crime. It is a long-term effort, and we have no intentions of slowing down the pace.
Since the interpellator reported that he was prevented from attending the meeting, the second deputy speaker allowed Gudrun Nordborg (V) to participate in the interpellation debate instead.
Gudrun Nordborg (V)
Madam Speaker! Thank you, Minister of Justice, for the answer! I appreciate that it is characterized by commitment and that it contains several positive initiatives directed at a number of different agencies.
The background to the interpellation is that women who have been involved in prostitution have not had their rights respected at the border police but have been taken into custody instead to be given time to consider how they would like to engage in a judicial investigation, which is a right they have.
Our aim is that we should reach all the way to the women and girls who are exploited in prostitution. They shall, of course, be offered support and receive alternatives for the future. The affected often also have a key function so that the police and prosecutors can obtain information that can lead to prosecution. This, in turn, creates new rights for the crime victims – the right to a victim's counsel, damages, etc., including the opportunity for a better future.
For this to be possible, it is required that trust is created. It can only be created through respectful treatment and information so that they dare to tell about their experiences. Information must be given about the right to a reflection period, which means that one has the possibility of a 30-day residence permit to consider what has happened and whether one wants to enter a legal investigation or not. Such an application gives the right to both care and interventions from the social services. It is an important part of the protection process, which hopefully can continue with one entering a legal investigation and receiving a continued residence permit.
That this right to a period of reflection is not respected is, in our opinion, an expression of serious misogyny with cruel consequences. Here, new opportunities are opened for pimps and sex buyers. We do not want them to be able to regain power over the girls or the women. We must prevent it, and we must go all the way.
Scattered projects and addressing things point by point does not help in managing this. The issue is not new, but we have had it and tried to tackle it for decades. A lot of decisiveness is required here, including resource allocation for the interventions that are needed in very many agencies.
I hope for a continuation from the Minister for Justice and am curious about what it could look like.
Justitieministern Gunnar Strömmer (M)
Madam Speaker! I thank Gudrun Nordborg and the interpellor for the opportunity to discuss these important issues today.
We are in complete agreement on the problem and the gravity of the problem and the importance of all actors in society who come into contact with the problem in different ways handling it. They must act in such a way that those who are vulnerable and are victims of human trafficking are treated with the respect they deserve. But the actors must also act in such a way that one can reach the underlying issues and those in the background who control, order, and organize the human trafficking and prostitution.
As I said in my opening response, we do it in different ways. It occurs with clear steering in the form of specific agency mandates, which in particular aim at the fact that Sweden has practically had non-existent prosecution in the area, which in an international perspective appears as something distinctive. In the regulatory letter to the Swedish Police Authority, we also have clear reporting requirements regarding this. I also mentioned that we have received an investigation that aims at precisely the human trafficking issue, which contains very many good legislative proposals and also additional measures that can be taken to meet this problem.
Regarding the concrete issue of the handling of or the meeting with women in this situation in relation to the border police, it has been raised in different ways for a long time. I have also personally met representatives of civil society organizations that are involved in the issues and who have supported women in that situation. There, I actually want to say two things.
One thing is that when it comes to decisions to take persons into custody, which are made by the Swedish Migration Agency and the police, it can also be relevant in such cases to conduct interrogations, if it is necessary to investigate whether a person has the right to stay in Sweden or if it is assessed that there is a risk that the person will not cooperate with the police. I just want to say that there is a legitimacy in considering that type of measures in such cases.
But with that said, it is also extremely important that the police are very aware of the issues that one works with and what special consideration must be taken in cases involving women who are victims of human trafficking and are in prostitution and in such a vulnerable situation. The police have also in recent years devoted much effort to educating their employees regarding these issues. Since we have followed up on these issues with the police in light of these much-publicized cases and pressure from civil society, I also know that at this moment, internally within the police, a discussion is being held on how one can be able to satisfy all these important objectives in the difficult work across the border.
I am glad that the questions are also being raised here in the chamber. I want to assure the interpellator and Gudrun Nordborg that I perceive that all actors fundamentally have the same attitude. These are women who are in a vulnerable position and naturally should be treated as such.
Gudrun Nordborg (V)
Madam Speaker! I wish that the ambitions shown now are truly put into practice. There have been initiatives time and again before, and I am afraid that it could also continue to be point interventions that do not have an effect on a broad basis, which is what would be needed.
It is obvious that a large part of the vulnerability that women and children have suffered from has fallen into the shadow of gang crime. I hope that efforts are made to catch up so that women and children have their rights met. The victim perspectives are usually highlighted, and they are extremely important here. There must be better measures in this area.
I have not had time to review the entire new investigation, but when it comes to measures for the crime victims who are exposed to prostitution in various forms, who all in our opinion should have the right to victim status, there are also, in addition to the police, who sometimes do a very good job, other professions that could be strengthened. I am thinking particularly of the regional coordinators that exist. Proposals have been made that one could do as one county has done, namely have special coordinators when it comes to prostitution and human trafficking that are focused on children and young people. There is therefore also room to make targeted efforts on the social side, which is sometimes necessary for the justice system to be able to function.
I understand that the Minister is pleased that the initiative was "already" taken this summer, in June 2025. But I am a bit disturbed and feel it grates when one says that it has "already" been done, when it is very old problems that are to be tackled. But thank goodness that it has started now!
I can also, as I hinted in my previous speech, reflect on the resource allocation and the action plan mentioned in the response. This has been mentioned previously when Vänsterpartiet has raised this question. I wonder when the action plan can be expected to be ready. Somewhere in the near future perhaps, because it is mentioned in the budget bill; it is intended to be reinforced with 14 million. But that is a small amount, especially if it is to cover several years. It would be the years between 2026 and 2028, and then it becomes for me a very small amount to tackle a large problem where many actors need reinforcements. I wonder if the minister wants to comment on this.
Justitieministern Gunnar Strömmer (M)
Madam Speaker! I begin by taking note of Gudrun Nordborg's exclamation of "thank God." Thank God, Gudrun, we now have a government that tackles the issues with seriousness and with the high level of ambition that the problems truly deserve!
Regarding the action plan, it is clear that it will be in place during the year. I do not have a date today, but it is inherent in the matter since we have accounted for it budgetarily starting from this year and for a few years ahead.
Regarding the amounts, one must naturally keep in mind that they are to be added on top of all the resources allocated for this issue within the framework of the agencies' ordinary mandates and funding. For different agencies, just on my side of the system – the Swedish Police Authority and the Prosecution Authority – all social agencies and actors, both nationally and locally, shall be added. It is clear that there will be an enormous resource mobilization regarding this issue, on very good grounds.
Gudrun Nordborg said that these issues have been overshadowed by gang crime. I want to say generally that I am happy to agree that, not least in the general debate, there is a great risk that such large system-threatening problems as we have had and have with shootings, explosions, criminal economy and recruitment of children become a very dominant issue. It also requires, in all respects, many resources, for example at the police, to counter that type of crime. But I still want to emphasize a couple of things.
One thing is that the large police growth occurring now – it is growing locally, close to the citizens and close to the problem area – occurs both so that we can tackle gang crime with full force and to ensure that there are growing resources to meet other very pressing problems in society. If we broaden the perspective, violence, other oppression, and other offensive treatment affecting women in different situations in society is a very central part of this. Now it is also coming on a broad front.
Again: In my government, we are now directing very extensive sentencing increases towards various aspects of violence affecting women. It concerns everything from it now becoming possible to sentence, for example, serial rapists to life imprisonment to the new security detention, which will be in place in April and means that truly dangerous persons can be locked up for an indefinite period, and so on. Furthermore, we have what we are talking about here today. I, as I said before Christmas, took on an investigation that also targets the criminal law issues regarding precisely this issue.
To this comes a good deal of other things we do that I believe have great significance for this. One such reform I can point to is the major removal of secrecy barriers that took place during last year. We talk very much about this in relation to the recruitment of children into criminal networks – school, police, and social services can work more closely together.
But this is a general change that will also make it possible for authorities to share information in a different way to meet other issues. We have talked about it, I want to remember, in relation to the terrible annual figure of 13–15 femicides in close relationships. Information that this can happen is in the system. It is just that the actors who can influence and prevent it from happening do not have the information together.
I believe we can see corresponding challenges in the area we are now speaking about, the human trafficking area. Here, one could exchange information in a more efficient way with the support of the new regulation. Then, different parts of society will also be able to tackle, prevent, and stop this issue to a greater extent than before.
Overall: Yes, there has been a shadow over the debate to some extent, but not a shadow over delivery, because a lot is happening there now.
Gudrun Nordborg (V)
Madam Speaker! Thank you again, Minister of Justice, for views that I can agree with in large parts! But I also have objections.
I say thank you and praise be that one is now investing, even though it came late. But I also want to say that I have worked with these issues for a long time. I have been involved in large-scale investments where one has gone in broadly and at local and regional levels and at the national level tried to educate all professions that could come into contact with those who are exposed to prostitution and human trafficking. But still, one has to start over all the time, because this is not structurally included in the system. It can be pushed aside and deprioritized if other issues are perceived as more serious.
I also want to point out that in some recent research reports and mappings, gang crime and organized crime also include human trafficking and prostitution. They are therefore not completely separate. There, one has a cynical exploitation of women and children which is sometimes more lucrative than drugs because women and children can be abused repeatedly while the drugs disappear when they are sold – if you have sold them, they are gone.
I agree that it is extremely important to be able to prevent these crimes in different ways. In that regard, I have also been able to see initiatives from various authorities where they are trying to invest in this. I hope for a continued intensive debate and many more reforms to support this.
Justitieministern Gunnar Strömmer (M)
Madam Speaker! Let me first say that I know that Gudrun Nordborg has extensive experience of both this issue and other related issues. I have great respect for that. What the member has to say is initiated and well-substantiated.
I am also aware of the risks of tackling problems in a somewhat more stochastic manner instead of working long-term and structurally. We also try to incorporate that insight into our way of managing the issues by having requirements for recurring reporting in regulatory letters and by having government mandates that target several different actors and extend over a longer period. There, the need to invest structurally and long-term in the issues is, so to speak, the starting point.
I gladly acknowledge this and do not underestimate the difficulty of achieving it. I also realize that many initiatives have been taken over the years. But this is, therefore, the approach we have as we now tackle this issue. It also permeates the investigation that I mentioned and which I received before Christmas, which specifically aims at human trafficking issues.
Let me also acknowledge a very important insight that this is often part of organized crime. It can occur in several different and in all respects very cynical and exploitative ways – from women, girls, and girlfriends being used as means of payment in various transactions between gangs or within gangs, to the more large-scale human trafficking that involves prostitution and other things.
I am pleased that we have now exchanged experiences and listed a long series of measures that are now underway in relation to this issue: government mandates, governance in relation to the authorities, increased penalties that are coming, a new action plan with funding, and so on.
Source: The Swedish Parliament. The speeches come from the open data of the Riksdag, translated into English by AI, which may contain errors.