Child trafficking: The EU approach

By Lyubcheva Marusya, 29 Jan 2009

“Child trafficking exists”. With this message I started the campaign against trafficking in children, which was originally based upon Written Declaration 50 of the European Parliament on combating the trafficking of children and intended to raise awareness and bring this issue on the agenda of the European institutions. I was generally concerned about the line of development of the European Union (EU) strategy against child trafficking and in particular – the excessive focus on the legislative aspects. My intention was to draw the attention and re-direct our efforts as policymakers on EU level towards the most affected ones – our children, and to ensure that their best interests will be taken into account.

My argument is very simple – child trafficking is a crime that violates the basic rights of our children, a crime which can – and does – destroy young lives. For a long period of time we have treated it as a “third world” problem, and since the last two EU enlargement waves – a sole problem of the new Member States. As a matter of fact, child trafficking has evolved into a global issue, involving directly or indirectly all European social and economic circles. It has also assumed different forms and manifestations: child pornography, labour exploitation, forced involvement in criminal activities, forced marriages, illegal adoptions and organ donations, all combined under a common feature – the grave violation of basic human rights, affecting nearly two millions children nowadays. We have to accept and deal with the fact that we have failed to give our children what they most need from us – protection. Even in that particular moment children are being taken away from their homes and families, transported to other countries, sold as goods and subsequently mentally and/or sexually abused.

After analyzing the long-term development of the issue, I would like to draw the attention to two aspects of the EU strategy on combating the trafficking of children:

- Child trafficking is not a problem of one or a group of countries, it is a global, cross-border issue and needs common measures. We have observed serious gaps and inconsistencies in the current national legislations and government approaches to the problem and we have to orientate towards solutions that place children’s rights at the centre of the safeguarding measures for victims of trafficking.

The difficulties encountered by the national governments, agencies, inter-governmental organizations and NGOs during their fight against the trafficking of children remain considerable. We must do our utmost to support such bodies in their work and not to use the insufficiency of resources available to them as an excuse to remain passive. As trafficking is a cross boarder problem, we need a “corkboard” policy of cooperation between governments, incl. specialized agencies, and NGOs. The governments should ensure that all forms of protection to which children are entitled are available in practice. In all actions concerning children, the best interests of the child shall be of a primary concern. We know that a lot of EU Member States have their own child protection strategies, but we consider the elaboration of special action plans for prevention and saving children from trafficking networks an important step in the right direction. We also need a long-term education strategy for prevention in order to overcome the potential dangers, faced by our children.

- In our capacity as policy makers and representatives of the civil society, we need to urge for a shift in the focus of the current anti-trafficking strategies. In other words, we need more effectiveness in the implementation and the prevention, and less legislative measures. We need to urge the Member States to implement common standards in the victims’ treatment process, encompassed by a framework, funded on both national and EU level. Such framework must include the establishment of rehabilitation facilities, re-integration and re-socialization programmes with the perspective to provide victims of child trafficking not only with first aid and additional medical treatment, but with psychological consultation and opportunities for education, employment integration and socialization.

Proper victims’ treatment may reduce the negative consequences of trafficking and ensure the proper physical and mental recovery of the children. Unfortunately, the currently existing victims treatment programmes suffer at most cases from limited time and scope, as well as from insufficient funding and sustainability. As a matter of fact, in the new Member States such programmes are governed mainly by NGOs, without any engagement and responsibility on behalf of the state authorities. Such an approach will inevitably lead to temporary results that will be lost once the supporting organizations run out of resources. Therefore it is crucial to ensure the involvement of the state at all stages of the victims treatment process – from the phase of victims identification to the phases of material support and legal protection.

All these measures must underlie the common EU approach to child trafficking. The European Parliament has manifested its political will and it is up to the Commission to implement it in its future incentives. Nevertheless, all our efforts will remain useless, unless the Member States undertake the necessary actions to support them. In that respect, the involvement and uniting of all sectors of the civil society through permanent anti-trafficking and awareness-raising campaigns is an important step in the right direction.