Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2000-05-18-Speech-4-057"
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"en.20000518.3.4-057"2
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".
Mr President, this report is vitally important. We are profoundly affected by the tragedy of trafficking in women which is a modern form of slavery. Our priority must be to give aid and assistance to the victims. We must fight to eliminate all the links in the chain, namely recruitment, transport, managers, middlemen and clients. By holding this debate today in the European Parliament, we are helping the victims to regain their dignity and integrity.
Women and children are being traded like goods and doomed to prostitution. Trafficking in women is an important type of trade for organised crime which regards human beings as goods to be bought and sold. Misfortune, misery and the false promises of pimps are luring these young women into our countries. They are attracted by promises of employment and some even come in the hope of getting married. They have no idea of the miserable conditions in which they will be exploited, beaten, tortured and threatened. Over half of the victims are under the age of 25 and around 10% are between 15 and 18. Even if these very young girls seem willing, because they are being threatened or are in love, we cannot, at any price, allow prostitution to continue freely when you see how these women are terrorised and traded.
This is why, in our opinion, we cannot use the term ‘forced prostitution’ in this report. Trafficking in women involves terrible sexual exploitation. We must help these victims to speak out and denounce their living conditions. We must welcome and help them. The pimps are very violent and victims must pay off large debts to cover the cost of their journeys and the various identity documents which they must acquire. When they resist the pressure of traffickers and pimps, they are threatened either personally or through their families. The traffickers belong to a Mafia-like criminal organisation and control several links in the network that has power over the victim. There is no way out for victims and the very nature of the environment in which they work often reduces them to despair and drug addiction. Some even go as far as committing suicide.
Fighting against trafficking in human beings is essential but it is better to prevent this. It is therefore vital to establish a system of information and preventive education for both young people in the countries concerned and also clients who are often what we would call ‘family men’.
We should not forget that trafficking has economic roots. Inequalities and relationships of dependency between privileged and disadvantaged countries mean that it is still always the weakest in society, particularly the women, who pay the price. We demand a coherent European policy which is why this report is so important. Trafficking in women is a crime. Trafficking in human beings and sexual exploitation are unworthy of humanity."@en1
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