Gareth Harding, The Independent (U.K.), March 9, 2001
BRUSSELS – The European Union marked International Women's Day yesterday by pledging to clamp down on gangs that traffic immigrant women into western Europe to work in the sex industry.
Vowing that in future there would be "no legal havens for traffickers", the home affairs commissioner, Antonio Vitorino, called for women and girls who agreed to testify against pimps to be granted temporary residence, and for the smugglers of women to face the same sanctions across Europe.
Mr Vitorino said that it was "clear that governments acting individually can not address the problem adequately". At present European countries have different definitions of trafficking and different punishments for those caught engaging in it.
Under the Commission's plans, which are due to be unveiled in detail next week, criminals caught trafficking women would face a minimum jail sentence of six years. Women caught in the double trap of sexual servitude and illegal immigration would be offered temporary residence permits in return for providing evidence against the pimps who enslave them. "The only way of gathering evidence against this kind of trafficking is with the co-operation of the victim. We need to show that victims have something to gain by helping the police," Mr Vitorino said.
Women's groups welcomed the plans, but said that longer-term protection was needed to prevent prostitutes becoming locked in a cycle of violence and servitude after their temporary permits expired.
The uphill task faced by the authorities was highlighted by a BBC report yesterday which showed that more than 40 African asylum-seekers have disappeared from children's homes in Sussex over the past two years. Most of the girls are smuggled to Italy and forced to work as prostitutes.
Although Sussex police had identified some of the traffickers, they have no means of bringing them to justice. "Unfortunately, at this time there appears to be a loophole where there is not quite enough legislation to cover the offences we find," Detective Sergeant Andy Cummings said.
Mary Collins, of the European Women's Lobby, cautioned against confusing asylum issues with the trafficking in women. Lengthy asylum procedures merely offered traffickers "a legal loophole to get away scot-free," she said, referring to the plight of the African teenagers in Sussex.
It is estimated that as many as 120,000 women and children are smuggled into Europe every year to work in the sex trade. The European Union's social affairs commissioner, Anna Diamantopoulou, said yesterday that "what we are experiencing in Europe is something that has not happened since pre-Christian times".
She criticised national authorities for failing to make the link between prostitution and the trafficking of women. "There is no clear political will in the member states to get to grips with this problem," she said, calling for a common European approach.
She said that the victims of human trafficking should be offered long-term protection by EU countries. "If these women do not have shelters and permission to stay, they will again be at the mercy of the pimps, who will be able to use them with complete impunity."
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© Copyright 2001 The Independent