MEPs from the European Parliament's Committees on Civil Liberties (LIBE) and on Women's Rights and Gender Equality (FEMM) held a meeting, on Monday 26 October, to discuss strengthening the current legal framework for fighting trafficking in human beings in the EU.
The two committees have been working jointly since February on a report on the implementation of EU Directive 2011/36 to prevent trafficking in human beings and to protect victims.
The Chair of the LIBE Committee, Juan Fernando López Aguilar (S&D, Spain), co-rapporteur on the report, described the meeting as “the last step” before the presentation and adoption of the final report on the subject, scheduled for 7 December.
Detailing this report in broad terms and the main gaps identified in Directive 2011/36, Mr López Aguilar stressed in particular that “the findings that criminal networks take advantage of migration challenge is not to be overlooked”.
He stressed the need to protect asylum-seekers, refugees and migrants and recalled that children accounted for almost a quarter of victims of human trafficking.
The MEP further noted that disparities in the application of the 2011 directive persisted at Member State level, in particular regarding access to the different procedures provided for in EU law to protect victims.
“The focus of an effective EU policy should be ensuring all victims to be identified and granted assistance when needed”, he said.
“Gender offense”. A point also raised by María Soraya Rodríguez Ramos (Renew Europe, Spain), rapporteur for the FEMM Committee on this issue.
Ms Rodríguez Ramos also pointed out that 72% of victims of human trafficking are women. The most common form of trafficking, she added, remains sexual exploitation, 90% of whose victims are women and girls. The majority of criminals, on the other hand, are men.
“This is a gender crime”, Ms Rodríguez Ramos denounced, arguing that the EU should take this into account “in order to establish useful strategies to put an end to these crimes”.
Finally, both rapporteurs stressed the urgent need to put an end to the impunity enjoyed by those responsible for trafficking in human beings, a crime that Ms Rodríguez Ramos recalled, on the basis of recent data published by the European Commission (see EUROPE 12586/12), that it was still “on the rise”. (Original version in French by Agathe Cherki)