The executive also wants to make changes to the Penal Code to strengthen the protection of trafficking victims, according to a bill that was submitted to parliament.

The bill presented by the Government was approved by the Council of Ministers and transposes a European directive related to the prevention and fight against human trafficking and the protection of victims.

The government wants the national anti-human trafficking coordinator to replace the current national rapporteur, who is "appointed by the member of the government responsible for the area of ​​citizenship and equality," explained the Ministry of Justice in a statement sent to newsrooms today.

The functions of this coordinator figure will include, added the cabinet led by Rita Alarcão Júdice, "promoting and coordinating programs to combat trafficking, monitoring trends in the phenomenon and the results of implemented measures, and collecting statistics in conjunction with the Commission for Citizenship and Gender Equality, the Observatory on Trafficking in Human Beings and the support and protection network for victims."

Regarding the changes to the Penal Code, the government wants, according to the document submitted today to the Assembly of the Republic, an article to be included in the Penal Code that provides for "the non-punishability of victims of human trafficking who commit illegal acts as a direct consequence of being subjected to one of the situations of exploitation" foreseen in the law.

In these cases, it is sufficient to ascertain during the investigation that the crime imputed to the victim is a direct consequence of human trafficking, including crimes related to "illegal immigration or work without the necessary authorisations, crimes of document forgery and use of another person's identification or travel document, and more serious crimes such as robbery, theft, violation of domicile and drug trafficking".

The objective is "to encourage victims of trafficking to report the crime or seek support and assistance," says the proposed law.

In addition to this proposal, which will be discussed by the members of the Assembly of the Republic, the government also approved, in the Council of Ministers, the transposition of another European directive related to electronic evidence.

In the same statement, the Ministry of Justice explains that approximately 85% of criminal investigations in the European Union use data in a digital environment, often outside the country where the investigation takes place, and therefore, the proposal is to create "rules applicable to the designation of establishments and legal representatives of providers of electronic communications services, domain names and other information society services, for the purposes of cooperation in criminal matters".