Launching from Namur on 27 July 2026, Belgium’s Federal Public Service Justice kicked off its national contribution to the UNODC ‘Blue Heart’ campaign, this year centred on victims coerced into online fraud schemes. Justice Minister Annelies Verlinden, UN officials and NGO partners highlighted how trafficking networks lure migrants—especially undocumented or unaccompanied minors—into call-centre style scams across Europe. Belgian police recorded 101 disappearances of unaccompanied foreign minors in 2024. Investigators now believe a share of those youngsters were transported to “scam factories” in Southeast Asia and Eastern Europe, where they are forced to run phishing and romance-fraud operations. The Blue Heart week aims to make banks, telecom providers and the travelling public aware of the human faces behind cyber-crime. For global-mobility and corporate-security teams the message is two-fold. First, staff relocating to or from Belgium who lose passports or get trapped in debt may be at risk of recruitment by traffickers. Second, companies should tighten vetting of outsourced customer-service vendors in low-cost jurisdictions, ensuring no trafficked labour is hidden in the supply chain—failure to do so could breach the EU’s forthcoming Corporate Sustainability Due-Diligence Directive. Practical resources include the Belgian reporting portal StopTraite.be and training modules that HR can incorporate into pre-departure briefings for expatriates. Employers are also encouraged to partner with Myria and specialised shelters such as Sürya to support victims discovered within their European operations. The campaign culminates on 30 July—UN World Day Against Trafficking in Persons—when landmarks across Brussels and Antwerp will be lit in blue. Mobility managers should share hotline numbers (+32 78 055 800) with foreign assignees and advise caution when responding to unsolicited online job offers abroad.
Source: FPS Justice
