Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2006-01-16-Speech-1-102"
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"en.20060116.16.1-102"2
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".
Mr President, Commissioner, if one makes a comparison with the statistics and requirements relating to the trading of animals, then the trafficking of human beings, and of women in particular, is a taboo subject. Human beings appear to be less valuable than animals, and every year sees an enormous increase in the number of women and children who are trafficked; in the absence of solid statistics and figures, estimates range between 800 000 and 3-4 million women and children every year. Figures of that order really should shake us out of our somnolence and bring us face to face with the need for action.
Another specific demand has to do with the trafficking in children: it appears that, in some cases, corrupt customs officials retain children’s identity cards. Belgian identity cards for children are not numbered; they are retained and used for child-trafficking. I would suggest that a numbering system for them be introduced.
As you can see, there is much for us to do in contending with the trafficking in human beings, and we have to be aware that these tragedies are being played out on our doorsteps.
Organised crime is on the rise, and trafficking rings are becoming ever more flexible in the methods and routes they use. Demand is on the up; the market is booming. Trafficking in women is a crime and a modern form of slavery. It demands more rigorous investigation and prosecution of the criminals concerned, care and support for their victims, and preventive action too. Both within the EU and internationally, what is needed is a holistic, integrated and inter-disciplinary approach. It needs to be holistic, because, in combating the trafficking in human beings, light needs to be shed on the triangular relationship between the victim, the client and the dealer. Nor, under any circumstances, must the people-smugglers, the pimps, the middlemen and all the places where the business is done, not to mention those who profit from them, be overlooked.
The primary objective must be to address the most blatant aspects of the problem, such as the increasing impact of poverty on women, high unemployment and wealth differentials, and to reduce the considerable potential for violence. It is for this reason that this report makes concrete demands, among other things for action to prevent and counteract people-trafficking to be implemented across the EU as part of its Neighbourhood Policy, its development policy, its foreign policy and of many other potential horizontal policy areas. The EU’s aid policy, too, must focus more on the reduction of poverty and hence have an indirect impact on the people trade, but there is also a need for the aid policies of the World Bank and of other big institutions to be analysed and examined with a view to finding out whether the money really does reach the people who need it, and whether it might not be doing the opposite of what it is intended to do. We know, after all, that international development policy does not reduce poverty, but can even contribute to the further marginalisation of groups at risk.
One great deficiency is the absence of a database, so what is needed is a unitary data collection system, and the Commission needs to work together with other international organisations to develop one. The only way we will get the same results from inquiries is to tackle them in the same way.
There is also a need for information campaigns in the countries of origin and of transit, along with an annual ‘Anti-trafficking Day’ with a logo making visible the enormity of the problems involved.
The European Union needs – by which I mean that the Member States need – to take action, action in the form of information campaigns aimed in particular at the victims, but also in the existing structures, such as the establishments where police officers, social workers and the judiciary are trained and in similar places, along with more cooperation with NGOs and the executive. For this, the prosecuting authorities will need staff and funding allocated to them, and information offices on the trade in women will need to be set up.
National and international telephone helplines need to be set up and publicised on national and local television. There need to be reviews not only of current visa practices but also of the many things that happen through diplomatic networks. It is as a particular matter of urgency that we urge that victims be given the right to remain not only for the duration of a trial, but also after it is over. The fact is that a victim’s testimony can help considerably to identify criminals, and we know that many victims are unwilling to testify out of fear, not only of public shame, but also of deportation. Something of a rethink is called for here. Anonymous statements by victims and clients also need to be accepted if the perpetrators of these crimes are to be hunted down.
Campaigns will need to be started to make those who provide the demand for these services aware of the catastrophic consequences of this trade, and I would also like to see anonymous hotlines for clients as well, in order to get more evidence from them. I am not, however, in favour of the clients being criminalised across the board, and I have, in this report, endeavoured to avoid focusing on national legislation on prostitution and thereby sacrificing a global problem to national differences.
I would also like to mention that the International Committee for the Rights of Sex Workers recently demanded social security rights and legalisation across the EU."@en1
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