New legislation
At a meeting on 9 February 2026, Andrej Babiš’s cabinet approved a draft amendment to the Criminal Code that expands the concept of trafficking in human beings and introduces a new crime punishing the knowing use of the services of victims of exploitation. The changes are intended, among other things, to respond to updated EU rules.
The amendment to the Criminal Code expands the scope of trafficking in human beings to explicitly cover situations that occur more frequently in practice than before – for example, the abuse of surrogacy (in cases where the woman is the victim and her free decision-making is fundamentally restricted), forced marriages, illegal adoptions, or coercion of victims to commit crimes. The base rate is to remain between 2 and 10 years, and to be increased to between 5 and 12 years for cases involving the use of coercive means against a child.
In addition, the proposal introduces a new offence targeting the “demand side”: it is intended to penalise those who are proven to knowingly use the services of trafficked persons (e.g. forced labour or other services provided as a result of exploitation). The draft also implements changes resulting from Directive (EU) 2024/1712, which Member States have until 15 July 2026 to transpose into law.
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