Brussels, 21/03/2006 (Agence Europe) - “I hope that 'Stop the Traffik' [sic] will raise awareness about the trafficking in human beings and in particular forced child prostitution”, Irish MEP Simon Coveney (EPP-ED) said on Tuesday at the launch of a campaign entitled “Stop the Traffik” at the Parliament in Brussels. MEPs recall that, out of the estimated one million people who are trafficked across borders throughout the world each year, some 100,000 women in Europe are trafficked into Europe every year to work in the sex industry. Reports suggest that 40,000 women and girls could be trafficked into Germany this year alone and forced to work as prostitutes during the World Cup (EUROPE 9152). “People should know that if they pay for sex the person they hire may have been trafficked or forced into prostitution”, Simon Coveney warns, stressing that, as a matter of priority, the efforts being made to combat forced prostitution should focus on reducing the demand for prostitutes. Taking up the views expressed by Nicole Fontaine (EPP-ED, France) during the campaign called a “red card for forced prostitution” (EUROPE 9154), Simon Coveney stressed that “human trafficking is a modern day form of slavery”, and is the “third largest source of income for international organised crime, after trafficking in drugs and arms”.
The campaign will aim to inform the general public on all problems relating to the trafficking of human beings. It will also aim to raise funds to help combat this phenomenon. The “Stop the Traffik” campaign is expected to culminate in “Freedom Day” on 25 March 2007, a day to celebrate the two-hundredth anniversary of the abolition of slavery in the United States and the United Kingdom. (For more information: http: //http://www.stopthetraffik.org ).