Diana: Yorkshire has a positive story to tell in Europe's fight against Child Trafficking

4.11.00pm GMT Fri 10th Oct 2008

The EU needs to develop a programme against child trafficking, says Diana Wallis, the region's Liberal Democrat Euro MP

Between two and four million people -- most of them children -- are estimated to fall victim to forced labour and other forms of trafficking each year.

Although the European Commission drew up a strategy on the rights of the child in 2006, anti-exploitation campaigners feel that it does not grapple properly with the problems associated with trafficking.

More than half of the European Parliament's 785 members have now signed a declaration urging that the situation be remedied by setting up a specific EU-funded scheme to address this scourge. Under the assembly's rules of procedure, the declaration has enough support to be formally endorsed by the entire body.

Local Liberal Democrat MEP, Diana Wallis, who has co-sponsored the successful declaration, said that the EU is "not doing enough to get to grips with this problem and could learn from the positive story in Yorkshire and the Humber.

"This horror is still being perpetuated 200 years after the abolition of slave trade," she added, recommending that EU governments should share more information about what they are doing against child trafficking at the national level."

She added:

"The weight of history is behind us in Yorkshire. After all it was a Yorkshire MP who was the principal player in the abolition of the slave trade. But more recently, the police force in South Yorkshire has done a great job on human trafficking. The officials taking the lead there have gone on to have national, indeed international status, for their work. It is no coincidence that Nick Kinsella, a policeman from South Yorkshire, is now Head of the UK Human Trafficking Centre and was in Brussels this week passing on ideas for 'best practice'."

The child rights advocacy group Terre des Hommes has complained that the issue of trafficking tends to be viewed through the prism of law enforcement and control of immigration. As a result, when authorities identify a child who has been trafficked, their main objective can frequently be to seek information about organised crime, rather than to give protection to the boy or girl in question. In many cases, EU governments go as far as making protection conditional on the child cooperating with the justice system.

Salvatore Parata, spokesman for Terres des Hommes, said that the EU has "confused child trafficking with migration and with the sexual exploitation of adults." Child trafficking should instead be viewed as a broader phenomenon which can also involve the drugs trade, begging and illegal adoptions, the group believes.

(Photo shows Diana with Nick Kinsella Head of the UK Human Trafficking Centre during his visit to the European Parliament this week)

The written declaration in full

Written Declaration 50 on Child Trafficking

A. whereas child trafficking is still a persistent problem, with more than two million children annually trafficked for forced labour and sexual exploitation,

B. whereas the development of new communication technologies increases the trafficking in children, making the managing of this phenomenon more difficult,

C. whereas national authorities and NGOs in the Member States are still not acting efficiently

D. against child trafficking, due to insufficient cross-border cooperation, lack of specialised training or inadequate implementation of existing legal standards,

1. Calls on the Member States to recognise the fight against child trafficking as a priority objective in their national child protection policies;

2. Calls on the European Parliament and the Council to provide the necessary resources in the framework of the Commission's strategy on promoting and safeguarding children's rights;

3. Calls on the Member States to continue actively cooperating and exchanging knowledge and experience with the relevant EU authorities and NGOs, in order to prevent and combat child trafficking, and provide adequate treatment for victims of such trafficking;

4. Instructs its President to forward this declaration, together with the names of the signatories, to the Council and the Commission.