‘Non-EU countries must be brought on board in fight against human trafficking’

Nationalist MEP Therese Comodini Cachia has called for an EU that can addresses transnational organised crime at its source and not only deal with the effects of it in the member states.

In remarks on a report on the fight against trafficking in human beings in the EU’s external relations, approved during plenary at the European Parliament, the MEP said proposals on addressing organised crime at source, included “engaging third countries to take on board political, social and economic measures that address what leads persons into being trafficked and how the EU must collaborate with third countries to bring down international criminal networks”.

Therese Comodini Cachia was rapporteur for the EPP group on this report.

The report recognises trafficking in human beings as a transnational crime of global nature and identifies the importance of a consistent approach to the internal and external dimensions of the EU’s policies in combating trafficking in human beings.

It also proposes European action on how causes of human trafficking can be addressed, by focusing on the person as victim of human trafficking.

The EU is encouraged to invest more in EUROPOL, to strengthen its work against trafficking networks.   

 he report focuses on different purposes of exploitation including sexual exploitation, forced labour, organ trafficking and forced marriages.

According to the Global Report on Trafficking in Persons of the UN’s Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), 70% of victims are women and girls; women represent 79% of victims of sexual exploitation. Men represent 83% of victims of forced labour.

Victims are often ‘invisible people’. They are vulnerable because they are alone, embroiled in a system of abuse, unable to communicate with those outside the system and hidden from authorities who can assist them. This report addresses trafficking in human beings as a transnational crime of a global nature and puts forward proposals on how the EU can strengthen the international response by focusing on root causes and how to develop its foreign affairs and development aid programmes to address the cause that drives persons to fall victim of trafficking networks,” Comodini Cachia said.