meeting of national coordinators and rapporteurs on THB
Good morning everyone.
I want to start by thanking you for what you are doing.
Thank you for your tireless dedication to counter trafficking in human beings.
Thanks to you, victims are rescued and supported and given a better life.
Trafficking is a despicable crime. A criminal can sell drugs or guns only once. But he can sell a woman's or a child's body again, and again and again.
We share a determination to fight this crime and we all share a strong desire to protect the victims. Who are the most vulnerable in society.
I have now been Commissioner for nearly five years.
In the last five years we faced many challenges together.
Unexpected challenges.
Russia's war of aggression. The danger that traffickers would target the millions of women and children fleeing Ukraine.
Together we joined forces in the European Union. And we confronted this threat. With help of Diane, EU agencies, and all of you together.
I want you to be proud of that.
Ukrainian women and children remain vulnerable and a target.
The threat is not over. We need to remain vigilant.
I'm glad in March Europol set up an operational task force against traffickers targeting Ukrainians.
Besides this unexpected challenge we also face structural challenges.
One of our first meetings was in October 2020.
We met often since then.
And there was one thing we deplored repeatedly and consistently.
And that is the culture of impunity. That traffickers don't pay for their crimes.
Last year, traffickers generated over 200 billion dollars worldwide.
We're are now countering the culture of impunity.
With the new EU asset recovery rules that I put forward.
We'll take away the fast cars, big houses and mountains of cash from the criminals.
But we're also making sure there will be consequences for the people who make use of the victims.
Without these people using, there would be no trafficking.
Let me tell you about Flavia.
She's 16 year old girl from France.
This is not her real name. But her story is all too real.
Her boyfriend sold her for 2000 euros to a gang in Brussels.
The gang locked her in a basement.
And sold her body online. Against her will.
For 150 euros an hour.
One hundred and sixty men contacted the website to use her body.
The traffickers got prison sentences, of up to eleven years in jail.
But still, it's not a story of justice.
The men who used Flavia's body, they went free.
They paid 150 euros, but Flavia is paying the consequences.
Every day for the rest of her life.
But now girls like Flavia can have justice.
In the updated anti trafficking Directive.
I've made sure it will soon be a crime in the whole European Union to knowingly use the services of trafficked victims.
Previously, this was only criminalised in a few Member States.
And now we're ending this patchwork of practices.
With the anti-trafficking Directive, we're making knowing use a crime in all Member States.
And this was to me personally was a very important goal when I put forward the proposal to update the Directive.
And to all those men who exploited Flavia's body.
To all men who want to buy a trafficked child's body, the message is now clear:
Impunity is over.
There will be consequences.
There will be punishment.
There will be prison.
Impunity is over.
Also when it comes to trafficking for labour exploitation. Which is on your agenda today.
40 % of all victims, is trafficked for labour exploitation.
For example. Window cleaning.
In the Dutch town of Zaanstad, window cleaning is a dirty business.
If you get your windows cleaned – organised crime could be pulling the strings.
The authorities tell us this town of 150,000 inhabitants has more than 1000 window cleaning businesses.
It's staggering.
Often bogus businesses. Using fraud, money laundering.
They drive legitimate businesses away with intimidation and violence.
And the signs of trafficking are there.
The cleaners are poor, from a different Member State.
They have 12 to 14 hour working days.
For 8 euros an hour.
In one house authorities found 78 matrasses for 78 workers.
The rent: 800 euro per month.
For one matrass.
The cleaners don't protest. Because if they do, they lose even that little money.
They lose even that one matrass.
The cleaners are not registered.
If you talk to them in the street, they call their boss.
Their “patron”.
The boss does all the talking.
The boss keeps the passports.
And you and I know: these are sure signs of trafficking.
The local authorities are fighting these criminals by introducing licences.
Soon, only window cleaners with licences will be allowed to do their job.
And that can be very effective.
And I am glad that the updated Directive will give new tools to counter these organised criminals.
In the Netherlands today knowing useis already a crime for sexual exploitation.
Once the Directive is transposed into national law.
Knowing use of trafficked labour will also be a crime.
And this will help law abiding citizens and companies to say “no” when they suspect trafficking.
Help them to say: “we refuse to use these services, because that could be a crime”.
The updated Directive also protects victims. By increasing support.
And victims will be protected from prosecution of crimes they were forced to commit.
Which will make it easier for them to speak out against their traffickers.
Besides our EU laws, we take joint EU action.
In action days in April led by the Netherlands, national and regional police, border guards and tax authorities cracked down on labour traffickers.
31 countries took part, with support from Europol and the European Labour Authority.
They arrested 50 people and identified more than 300 victims.
There's a lot we've done together the last five years. And there's a lot we can be proud of.
At the same time I realise: the work against trafficking never stops.
In the Guardian last week there was a shocking article.
About hundreds, maybe thousands of children exploited by drug gangs.
On the streets of Brussels. The streets of Paris
Often unaccompanied minors.
Especially from Morocco and Algeria
They walk around like zombies.
Drugged by the criminals.
Forced to sell drugs.
They are raped. And filmed while being raped.
They are forced to attack rival gangs with knives.
And this example once more shows trafficking is a dangerous organised crime.
When Europol made a mapping of the most threatening criminal networks in the European Union, out of the 821 most threatening criminal networks mapped by Europol, 55 engage especially in trafficking.
Some of the most dangerous criminal networks engage specifically in trafficking.
18 for sexual exploitation. 13 for labour exploitation.
And many networks combine trafficking of human beings with other crimes.
My mandate as Commissioner is soon to end.
For you there is a lot left still to do.
You can build on the updated Directive.
The new Directive will help to tackle new kinds of trafficking – of surrogate mothers, forced marriages, illegal adoption.
Will help to better protect and support victims.
The Directive will give you better coordination and more and better data.
The Directive was adopted with overwhelming majority by the Parliament.
And unanimously by the Council.
Sending the message:
The crime of trafficking of human beings will not stand in Europe.
And that's also a clear endorsement of your work.
And a clear encouragement to continue.
I wish you all the best for the future.
From the bottom of my heart:
Thank you.
| Zařazeno | út 18.06.2024 09:06:00 |
|---|---|
| Zdroj | Evropská komise en |
| Originál | ec.europa.eu/commission/presscorner/api/documents?reference=SPEECH/24/3364&language=en |
| lang | en |
| guid | /SPEECH/24/3364/ |
