Debate: Implementation of the Anti-Trafficking Directive
Date: MONDAY, 8 FEBRUARY 2021
Speaker: Ylva Johansson
Language: EN

I know that trafficking is as shocking to you as it is to me. That you too want justice for the victims. That you too are determined to end the trafficking of human beings. So I would like to thank Juan Fernando López Aguilar and María Soraya Rodríguez Ramos, and the European Parliament, for putting this report on the table. We must help the Susans of this world and step up the fight against trafficking in human beings. It’s obvious that we need to do more.  Trafficking in human beings is one of the worst forms of organised crime, carried out by cross-border gangs that exploit people, their labour and their bodies. Member States must fully implement the Anti-Trafficking Directive and the Commission will assess this very closely. We will help Member States by boosting the capacity of law enforcement and judicial bodies also across borders, perhaps with a knowledge hub to share best practices and information.  At the same time, the Anti-Trafficking Directive will have its 10th anniversary this year. We need to start looking if it needs updating. A full time anti-trafficking coordinator will be appointed. The traffickers treat human beings as tradable objects, as commodities. We must disrupt the economic logic behind this crime. We must cut demand by targeting users. 60% of trafficking is for sexual exploitation and 92% of these victims are women like Susan. Without users there would be no trafficking.  I will look at possibilities to criminalise the use of exploited services. We need to make it more difficult to exploit victims’ labour, and we should target high risk sectors like agriculture, care services and construction. Better awareness and communication campaigns in these sectors could help identify victims. We need to look at all the EU agencies that can help to tackle this problem. We must cut the supply of victims by breaking the criminal model of trafficking. To do that we must end the culture of impunity. Human traffickers now make nearly EUR 30 billion every year, worldwide. I want to target asset recovery more effectively.  To catch criminals and secure convictions we need to boost law enforcement cooperation. That is already a Commission priority – interoperability of data systems, updating the Prüm system. Our recent proposal to boost Europol’s mandate will help to fight all cross-border crime, including trafficking. We are working on a police cooperation code. To counter trafficking specifically we could increase data exchange on trafficking through Europol. We could improve coordination between Member States and agencies. We must harness technology against trafficking. Europol and the United Nation’s Office on Drugs and Crime are ringing the alarm bell. Traffickers are moving online.  We need to improve digital capacities of law enforcement for online investigations to detect recruitment and trafficking of victims online and illegal money flows. We also need to work closer internationally. Working with friends and partners to fight smuggling is essential to our new pact on Migration and Asylum. Breaking criminal networks will also be part of our upcoming action plan against migrant smuggling.  We should investigate if and how we can mobilise our foreign policy, security and trade instruments against trafficking. The traffickers aren’t selling objects, they are exploiting human beings. We must protect the victims by supporting training of border guards, police, social workers and others, to identify and save victims, efforts by Member States to help victims, with funding and sharing best practices, awareness raising on victims’ rights, and by building partnerships, for example with the Economic and Social Committee and the Committee of the Regions. Throughout, we need to keep three things in mind. First, this is a European problem. 70% of the perpetrators are EU citizens. Half of the victims are EU citizens. Three quarters of trafficked children are EU citizens. This is a European problem. Second, this is a gendered crime. Nearly three quarters of perpetrators are men. Nearly three quarters of all victims are women and girls. Third, that the most vulnerable suffer most. Children, mostly girls but many boys too, are forced to beg and steal, but mostly forced into sexual exploitation. In migrants and refugees, traffickers prey on children and teenagers on the road or in camps – especially unaccompanied minors who are perhaps the most vulnerable of all. I look forward to working closely together with you in the European Parliament to step up the fight against trafficking in human beings.