A new bill submitted to parliament regarding human trafficking would make the penalty for the offence significantly greater.
RÚV reports that Minister of the Interior Ögmundur Jónasson submitted a bill to parliament which would amend the General Criminal Law. Therein, the maximum penalty for being a party to human trafficking would be increased from eight years to twelve, should the bill pass.
Also, if someone is found guilty of other serious crimes in addition to human trafficking, the accused will have to serve the maximum sentence for human trafficking.
Human trafficking, while not as prevalent in Iceland as it might be in other European countries, does still exist and has received increased attention over the past year. Former Minister of Justice Ragna Árnadóttir had previously proposed increasing police surveillance of foreigners deemed to be engaging in suspicious activities as one means of combating human trafficking.
A final vote on the bill has yet to be taken, but at the time of this writing no member of parliament has spoken out against it.
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