Brussels, 18/01/2006 (Agence Europe) - With Tuesday's vote adopting (by 662 votes to 12, with 19 abstentions) the report by Christa Prets (PES, Austria) on “strategies to prevent trafficking in women and children”, the European Parliament backed a series of measures on prevention, awareness raising and curbing, and, as Nicole Fontaine (EPP-ED, France) stressed, paved the way for a real common policy against this curse of our times. Parliament called for an anti-human trafficking day, with an international logo organised at EU level and for legislative measures to prevent the use of new technologies, particularly the Internet, to exploit women and children for sexual ends. It also called for measures to be taken against trafficking of women and forced prostitution during major sporting events, like the 2006 football World Cup in Germany, for awareness raising campaigns aimed both at vulnerable people in their home countries, warning them of the dangers of trafficking, and the public in the countries of destination, to reduce the demand. Parliament stressed the importance of cooperation with the Council of Europe and other international organisations to develop common strategies. Parliament pointed out that only Belgium and Italy have granted right of residence to victims of trafficking in women after the conviction of the traffickers and stressed that victims should be encouraged to come forward and help prove the guilt of suspects, and also that anonymous statements in enquiries into this kind of trafficking should be permitted.
During Monday evening's debate, Christa Prets, whose report spoke of between 600,000 and 800,000 victims throughout the world (100,000 women in the EU), said that in statistics “the subject is still taboo”. She said that a uniform system of data collection was necessary, and called for a system of modern sanctions and lots of preventative measures aimed at the customer-supplier-victim triangle. Commissioner Franco Frattini considered that it was not just an institutional or legal duty, but a moral one as well, and he gave assurances that the fight against organised human trafficking was for him a “personal priority”. The Justice, Freedom and Security Commissioner whole-heartedly agreed with the rapporteur, in favour of an integrated approach based on the principle of absolute respect for every human being. Mr Frattini also stressed that efforts would continue to build a database with Europol. He also wanted support for victims, not only when they were helping police but also to help their rehabilitation into society. Although he understood that the rapporteur did not want to put prostitution at the centre of the debate, but he personally felt that the issue had to be raised. He considered that the phenomenon had to be approached from the angle of the consumer and severity shown to clients. Inger Segelström (PES, Sweden) also wanted the question of prostitution to be dealt with. Nicole Fontaine (EPP-ED, France) lamented the fact that, despite recent media attention, public awareness of the problem was still low. The former President of the European Parliament welcomed the rapporteur's timely avoidance of the trafficking-prostitution debate, which differences in national legislations would have brought to a rapid halt. On the same subject, Lissy Gröner (PES, Germany) and Feleknas Ucka (GUE-NDL) pointed out that, during the World Cup, 40,000 additional prostitutes would be “recruited”. Mr Frattini assured them that he would write to the German government asking them to monitor the situation, although he considered that federal authorities were well equipped to deal with the problem.