Trafficking in Human Beings

1. Trafficking in Human Beings Patsy Sörensen, MEP London, june 2003

2. Questions • Do you know anyone who has been deceived into migration? • Do you know anyone who has been sold, resold? • Do you know anyone who has been exploited? • Have you ever talked to such a person?

3. Questions • Have you ever wondered where the women come from working in some sauna’s? • Have you ever wondered where the people come from who clean the restaurants at night? • Have you ever wondered where people begging in the streets come from?

4. Reality • Many victims are being forced to be house-slaves or sex-slaves, often in richer households • if they try to escape, they often get arrested and put in jail as illegals • Then they are simply dumped without a realistic chance of survival

5. Complexity • Where is the idea of human rights in the EU today? • Almost everything is now possible for animal rights, such as shelter • For human beings this is a lot more difficult • we literally consume the poorer countries of the world. • Sex-tourism

6. How I started working for victims • Antwerp: police actions against prostitution • A “clean-up” operation to stop everything in and around the prostitution scene. • All too visible problems: • a climate of rumours • confused responsibilities and distrust • intimidation, manipulation and corruption • Everyone knows everyone

7. Work as an MEP • Checking, studying and follow-up of national policies, as well as developing European and transnational policy. • This involves a lot of travelling, which makes it very difficult to be permanently present at any location. • Antwerp - Brussels - Strasbourg • On trafficking: Balkan region/ Afghanistan/ Africa/ South-America/...

8. Political Agenda • Trafficking is now very high on the political agenda of the EU: • recent Communication from the Commission • Brussels Declaration • Need for political will • Not all countries are willing to co-operate and prefer to follow their own national agenda, even on this transnational and even global issue.

9. Clear distinctions • Fight against smuggling and trafficking: • smuggling is a crime against the state • trafficking is a crime against a person, human rights • Migration is a political issue: how do organise society? • Trafficking is the joy of organised crime • the lack of a comprehensive and integrated migration and asylum policy is a sure recipe for the rise of the extreme right.

10. Clarity • Trafficking is business: high profits, low risks • Root causes of trafficking: • deep social and economic inequalities within and between countries • deep inequalities between men, women and children • poverty, violence: • often people knowingly put themselves in situations of exploitation to escape an impossible situation. They take the risk, not fully knowing the consequences.

11. Clarity • Victims may not fully realise themselves that they are victims. • How can a victim tell who is who? • Often a victim will consider the trafficker as effectively a social helper: he is the one who can offer something concrete. • Most victims come from places where authorities and police people are not trusted, mainly because of corruption.

12. The quest for help • victims find it hard to formulate a request for help • often they perceive the traffickers as those who can and will actually help them • they do not/can not know whom to trust • All actors, police, judiciary, NGOs, government officials need to be aware of the reality of trafficking. Need for specialised training

13. What do victims want? • A roof over their head • A job • A normal life • To forget

14. Fear • of government and authorities in general • the country they ended up in • of going back home • care-givers • family, friends, acquaintances • traffickers • the certainty of everlasting uncertainty

15. What do victims need? • A victim must be able to talk - but not be forced to talk - about his or her trafficking history • without bringing him or her into difficulties • This requires an appropriate set of rules and regulations, clear agreements • A victim needs protection. Putting a victim in jail is simply sadistic. • Victims need access to social, psychological and legal assistance and be allowed to work.

16. Importance of a recognition of victims • So that the victim once more is someone, has a name, can move around and claim her rights, human rights, and civil rights.

17. Three levels of counter-trafficking • Three levels need to be developed at the same time: • prevention • protection • prosecution • This involves all relevant public actors: • judicial, police, government, NGOs, all of which need to know and understand their responsibilities

18. Questioning • How does the police pose questions in an interview? • Attention needs to be paid to the language used • Attention for the cultural background (ex. Kanun) • Politeness (a victim may be overly polite or timid and thereby hesitate to offer certain information) • professional attitude

19. Kanun • “The Code of Lekë Dukagjini”(Northern Albania) • “A woman is a sack, made to endure” • “The Rights of the Father over his Sons” The father has the right “(…) to beat, bind, imprison, or even to kill his son and daughter without being liable before the law, which considers this to be the same as suicide.”

20. Key-actors

21. An example of what works • The Belgian system works • a system of recognised NGOs • temporary residence permit for victims who co-operate with the authorities • triple filter system: • police, criminal investigation • judiciary, prosecutor • Ministry of the Interior, Foreigners Service

22. Residence permit • European Parliament: • Report on a short-term residence permit for victims who are willing to co-operate with the authorities • as a recognition of the victim as a victim • based on the Belgian model

23. By way of conclusion • In the world of trafficking • Freedom: none • Equality: none • Solidarity: some, on rare occasions • Working on trafficking means working against the evil that hides in many of us ; it means working in the midst of an explosive cocktail.