More than 30,000 people were registered as victims of human trafficking in the EU in 2010-2012.
Women and girls form the vast majority of human trafficking victims, both in and outside the EU. On December 2, the European Parliament (EP) women’s rights and civil liberties office organized a meeting with the UN and European Commission representatives to find out the latest about the situation in the world and the implementation of the EU’s strategy to eradicate human trafficking, reports EP News.
The meeting was chaired by Iratxe Garcia Perez, a Spanish member of the S&D group who is the chair of the women’s rights committee, and Claude Moraes, a UK member of the S&D group who is the chair of the civil liberties committee.
Myria Vassiliadou, the EU’s anti-trafficking coordinator, presented the EP Commission’s mid-term report on the EU’s 2012-2016 strategy for the eradication of human trafficking.
According to the report, 30,146 victims were registered in the 28 EU member states in 2010-2012, 80% of whom were women and girls; 69% of all victims are trafficked for sexual exploitation, and for female victims this is up to 95%; and 71% of male victims are trafficked for labor.
Organ Harvesting
Members of the EP expressed concern about human trafficking to use women as surrogate mothers and organ harvesting. Marijana Petir, a Hungarian member, said “trafficking was a very profitable modern form of slavery.” Marek Jurek, a Polish member, called for combating activities such as prostitution. Angelika Mlinar, an Austrian member asked what was being done to identify victims and raise awareness of their rights.
Kristiina Kangaspunta, the chief of the UN Office on Drugs and crime, presented a report on human trafficking at a global level: 70% of victims are female and 53% of all victims are trafficked for sexual exploitation.
She noted that there was an increasing number of forced labor detections, but no major improvement for the EU in this area; 34% of trafficking happens within the same country.
