Brussels, 07/12/2006 (Agence Europe) - Danish employment and equality minister Eva Kjer Hansen recently tabled a proposal in Council to produce a social guidance plan to prevent human trafficking. “I would like the ministers of social affairs to take some responsibilities on the social side of trafficking,” she said on 1st December in an interview with EUROPE.
The minister's proposals, which were presented to her EU employment and social affairs counterparts, at the Council on 1St December, revolve around four main ideas: - firstly, putting in place a method of coordination based mutual learning between Member States in order to understand what is done in social terms to prevent trafficking; - development of common statistics and indicators, particularly to learn more about at-risk groups and to find better ways of helping them; - the development of projects between Member States, concentrating on prevention and awareness raising, particularly for young girls in refuges and reception centres given the risks of their falling into prostitution; - and, finally, information campaigns on a European level targeted at the victims of human trafficking.
She hoped that her initiative would not prevent her colleagues from bringing forward their own ideas on how to prevent human trafficking. In order to launch possible measures in the future, Ms Kjer Hansen was very happy that the Daphne III programme (with a budget of €116.85 millions for 2007-2013) “explicitly mentioned” activities related to human trafficking and, therefore, allowed Member States to launch initiatives. She also felt that the Commission had a huge role to play in the creation of coordination networks and data gathering at European level. She also said that she intended to her actions to be seen as supplementary to the actions already taken in the area of Justice and Home Affairs. (bc)