Brussels, 09/11/2012 (Agence Europe) -Trafficking in human beings is going through a “worrying” evolution in South-East Europe, with a rise in all forms of exploitation, especially that of minors, experts who met in Bucharest on 8-9 November say, according to AFP. “There is an increase in trafficking and not only for sexual exploitation”, the special representative of the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) said.
More and more women, men, and especially teenagers and children from countries in the Balkans, Moldova and Ukraine are victims of networks, the experts said - networks which force them to work as prostitutes, work as slaves, beg or commit crime. Their destination is Western Europe and also Russia, Cyprus or Turkey, “as well as tourist areas around the Black Sea and on the Adriatic”.
“The phenomenon of trafficking in human beings is worrying because the exploitation of minors is on the increase. Networks target the most vulnerable people”, a French expert explained, who had travelled through 16 countries and reported, for example, that in Romania, the age of the majority of women identified as victims of trafficking in 2011 was 16 years old.
Aware of the growth of this phenomenon, European Commissioner for Home Affairs Cecilia Malmström again asked member states - on 18 October, the 6th European Anti- trafficking Day - to implement rapidly the directive on the fight against human trafficking. EU member states and candidate countries have until April 2013 to transpose Directive 2011/36, which harmonises the definition of human trafficking and the sanctions, and lays down protection measures for victims. Last June, Malmström also presented a European strategy against human trafficking, which aims to coordinate member states' policies.
According to the European Commission, several hundred thousand people are forced to be slaves in the EU - and 81% of the victims are women or young girls enslaved for sexual purposes or exploited for domestic tasks, Malmström said in June. According to the International Labour Organisation (ILO), 1.5 million people are forced into different forms of slavery in the EU member states and other developed countries (USA, Canada, Australia, Japan and Norway) - in other words, 7% of the 20.9 million victims of human trafficking in the world, including 5.5 million children. (SP/transl.fl)