Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2000-05-18-Speech-4-302"
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"en.20000518.13.4-302"2
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"Mr President, with millions of people victim to the criminal activities of worldwide international trafficking gangs throughout the world and the terrifying spread of these networks to the European Union, we urgently need to take steps to fight this contemporary Lernaean Hydra. The Union and the Member States currently have no powers whatsoever to intervene efficiently and break up the gangs operating almost undisturbed in our midst and in our neighbourhoods. The public in Athens was shocked recently at the revelation that an Albanian immigrant, who had declared that he was a doctor, had kept a 13-year-old girl imprisoned in his apartment in a peaceful neighbourhood of Athens for nine months and prostituted her to some 50-60 respectable customers a day.
I personally advocate therefore that all the strategies used to fight trafficking in and the sexual exploitation of women and children should call for harsh punishment, both for those who profit from the trade in human beings and for those who use the services of prostitutes, as is the case under Swedish and Canadian law. It would appear that the increase in human trafficking has coincided with the recent mass migration of people and the impoverishment of large sections of society.
recently published shocking information on the activities of human traffickers, who are taking advantage of the situation in Kosovo and working with international illegal immigration organisations in order to sexually exploit some 300 000 women in France, Germany and Belgium, women mainly from Kosovo, but also from Moldavia, Romania and Bosnia.
Women are being held in concentration camps in conditions of true slavery and are being tortured before being forced into prostitution. What is happening is a disgrace to Europe in the 21st century and betrays a lack of political will and commitment to prioritise this issue. The Commission communication is satisfactory and Mrs Sörensen has presented an excellent report, but good intentions alone will not combat international organised crime. We need initiatives on several fronts: legislative and administrative measures, harmonisation of legislation and prosecution methods, harsh punishment, protection for victims and collaboration between police and judicial authorities. We also need to strengthen Europol with more funds and more staff so that it can start making joint prevention and prosecution plans with all the Member States and, of course, we need to strengthen non-governmental organisations. In other words, we need to implement all the provisions of the Treaty of Amsterdam and the Tampere conclusions immediately. All these are issues, Commissioner, on which we are making no progress whatsoever."@en1
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