10,000 cases of human trafficking in Europe
Today, on the international day against human trafficking, ECPYouth and JEVP call for an increasing public awareness, legal systems, effective support and protection for the victims as well as international cooperation for fighting human trafficking in Europe and worldwide.
Human trafficking is not a distant problem. Each year, over 10,000 cases are identified in Europe, with many more likely going unreported. This crime occurs not only in far-off places, but here — within our own countries, cities, and communities. It is a pressing human rights issue that concerns all of us. The victims are being exploited in various sectors and under dreadful conditions. Sexual exploitation represents the most common form and mostly affects women and girls. They are coerced into prostitution by force or deception, sometimes moved to other countries and bound to the workplace or the traffickers by financial, legal or social dependencies. Labor exploitation through dubious contracts, abusive work conditions and inadequate compensation is the second most common form of human trafficking with likely even higher numbers of unrecorded cases. Other forms of human exploitation exist, such as organ trafficking.
The practices described are unequivocally modern slavery, are beyond any moral concept of human rights and explicitly run counter to all Christian values of love, equality and dignity. Human trafficking in any form must end. Now!
The European Community must act now
The JEVP (Young Protestant People’s Party of Switzerland) together with the ECPYouth (European Christian Political Youth) demand concrete actions. Every country in Europe should do its utmost to end human trafficking.
We call on the European community to take the following steps and measures:
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To strengthen and proactively promote cross-border cooperation, particularly through partnerships with international and regional bodies, in order to improve information-sharing and documentation related to human trafficking.
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To allocate more extensive financial resources and personnel for the international and regional prosecution of trafficking individuals and organisations. This would allow for the implementation of new widespread measures against human trafficking and the education of law enforcement, specialists and lawmakers.
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To improve the awareness within our society (e.g. through public campaigns) as human trafficking is often overlooked, forgotten and silenced. Public consciousness forms an invaluable contribution in preventing and reporting human trafficking.
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To invest in long-term prevention by addressing the socio-economic root causes of human trafficking, such as gender-based violence, unemployment, poverty and lack of access to education, particularly in high-risk regions.
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To implement all of the individual measures for each country recommended by the “Committee of the Parties to the Council of Europe Convention on Action against Trafficking in Human Beings”.
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To give financial, legal and psychological support to the victims of human trafficking, so that they won’t face the danger of getting re-trafficked.
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To ensure that identified victims of human trafficking are given a temporary residence permit for the duration of the legal processes to prevent them from getting re-trafficked in their country of origin or residence.
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To introduce monitoring mechanisms for groups particularly vulnerable to human trafficking, such as children, migrants and people with disabilities.
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To examine adaptations and the implementation of laws according to the nordic model regarding prostitution and therefore outlawing the purchase of sex and prosecuting clients, not the sex workers.
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To hold businesses to higher standards of accountability and due diligence to prevent human trafficking in their supply chains.
Every case, one too many
We need to recognize that our supposedly humane and egalitarian society still allows for modern slavery to exist and for thousands of people to be exploited for personal, sexual and financial gain without any regard for the human rights to dignity, independence, integrity and personal development.
The European Community needs to accept that human trafficking is much more prevalent than most people would like to think and much more could be done to prevent it. With adequate resources, effective laws and prosecution, widespread awareness and effective international cooperation, human trafficking can be directly addressed and eliminated, because every case is one too many.
As Christians we are convinced that we need to bring our political and ethical focus back on humanity and a life in dignity for every individual.