EU aid contributing to the fight against human trafficking in South and South-East Asia was “partially effective”, says the European Court of Auditors in a report published on Tuesday 20 June.
Eradicating human trafficking is necessarily a long-term process. A number of root causes (e.g. gender inequality, poverty, minority rights, education and health) have to be addressed and the activities of criminal networks disrupted. In view of the complexity of the situation, numerous widespread priorities and limited resources, the EU was partially effective in supporting the fight against human trafficking in South/South-East Asia, the Court says. As of April 2017, “the Commission has not published a comprehensive evaluation of the results achieved under the THB Strategy (EU Strategy towards the Eradication of Trafficking in Human Beings 2012); nor has it presented a post-2016 anti-trafficking policy framework”, the auditors regret. EU support was €31 million for the period from 2009 to 2015.
The auditors note that most of the examined projects in South and South-East Asia produced some positive results in the fight against human trafficking. However, around two thirds of the sample projects had weaknesses as regards the formulation of objectives and/or indicators and some design weaknesses were not addressed in good time.
There has been an overall improvement in the fight against human trafficking in South and South-East Asia but this is difficult to link to specific EU actions (both in terms of funding allocation and the results achieved), the Court concludes. According to data from the US government report on people trafficking, the countries which have improved are Bangladesh, Cambodia, India, the Philippines and Pakistan while the situation remains unchanged in four countries (Indonesia, Nepal, Myanmar and Vietnam). Things deteriorated in only one country, Thailand, in the period covered by the audit. (Original version in French by Lionel Changeur)