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Mariah Jen
14 December 2010
The European Commission has today decided to appoint Ms Myria Vassiliadou to the position of European Anti-Trafficking Coordinator. At the same time, the European Parliament has voted in favour of the Directive against trafficking in human beings that the Commission proposed in March.
“Today is an important day for the EU’s fight against this modern day slavery”, emphasises EU Commissioner for Home Affairs Cecilia Malmström. “The political agreement today in the European Parliament is most welcome. This shows a broad ambition within the EU that we want to step up our efforts to build a comprehensive European anti-trafficking policy. One important step towards that target is today’s appointment of Myria Vassiliadou as European Anti-Trafficking Coordinator. She will have a central role in coordinating all aspects of our policies against this horrific crime. I am very glad that Ms Vassiliadou has accepted to take up the job and I look forward to working with her”.
Myria Vassiliadou, from Cyprus, is currently Secretary General for the European Women’s Lobby, EWL, based in Brussels. She holds a PhD in Sociology and has an extensive experience in areas such as fundamental rights, trafficking, migration and women’s rights through her work in academia, European institutions and non-governmental organisations.
The Anti-Trafficking Coordinator will improve coordination and coherence between EU institutions, EU agencies, Member States, third countries and international actors. She will help elaborate existing and new EU policies relevant to the fight against trafficking and provide overall strategic policy orientation for the EU’s external policy in this field. The coordinator will report directly to the Director-General of DG Home Affairs.
An effective EU policy on the fight against trafficking will need to draw from many different policy fields, such as police and judicial cooperation, protection of human rights, external relations, migration policies and social and labour law. It will be the task of the anti-trafficking coordinator to ensure coherence between all these policy fields.
Background
The fight against trafficking in human beings is an overarching priority for the Commission and the EU. In March 2010, the Commission proposed legislation obliging EU Member States to act on three fronts: prosecuting criminals responsible for trafficking human beings, protecting the victims and preventing the offences (IP/10/380).
Now that the Directive has been endorsed by the European Parliament, it will have to be formally adopted by the Council before it can enter into force. The new Directive will replace current EU legislation dating from 2002 (Framework Decision 2002/629/JHA) and will apply to all Member States except Denmark and the United Kingdom. Member States will then have to comply with the new rules within two years.
For more information
Homepage of Cecilia Malmström, Commissioner for Home Affairs:
http://ec.europa.eu/commission_2010-2014/malmstrom/welcome/default_en.htm
Source: IEWY News
Image via WikipediaJustice opt-out prevents participating in new EU efforts to stop human trafficking
The European Parliament is expected to pass a directive today which will significantly tighten the measures against human trafficking. But since Denmark does not take part in common justice policy, the country could risk becoming a paradise for human traffickers, reports Ekstra Bladet newspaper.
“I’m worried that human traffickers will start taking advantage of the fact that we’re not covered by the tougher new measures,” said Emilie Turunen, an MEP for the Socialist People’s Party (SF).
She called the directive a “disaster” for Denmark and the first evidence that the country’s justice exemption, one of four EU policy opt-outs, carries a cost.
It has been suggested that Denmark could close the loophole by entering into a parallel agreement with the union.
“But as Justice Minister Lars Barfoed pointed out last week, such an agreement has to be decided by the union member states and that could be a long process,” said Turunen.
She hopes this will serve as a wake-up call for parliament to reconsider the country’s opt-out from certain EU legal requirements.
Jail sentences for the most serious offences will be at least five years, rising to 10 where there are also aggravating circumstances.
The tougher measures to combat sexual exploitation and forced labour were passed by a large majority of Euro MPs.
The UK opted out of the new law, being wary of EU judicial powers, but UK Conservative MEPs still voted for it.
Denmark also opted out.
"The EU's directive is not perfect but, given the stakes, we decided to give it our support," said Marina Yannakoudakis, MEP of the European Conservatives and Reformists (ECR) group.
She stressed that criminal law "remains a matter for national governments" and the directive "comes close to the red line, but I believe it no longer crosses it".
The directive defines "exploitation" more broadly than the EU decision of 2002 which it replaces. The 27 member states have two years to put it into effect.
Human trafficking will now include "instigating, aiding, abetting or attempting" to commit the offence.
In cases where the perpetrator is a legal entity, the possible sanctions will include fines, exclusion from public funding or permanent closure of organisations.
Victims of human trafficking will be entitled to a range of support under the new directive, including medical and psychological treatment and legal aid - free of charge if they have insufficient funds.
According to the European Parliament, several hundred thousand people are trafficked into or within the EU each year. Some 43% are exploited for prostitution and 32% for menial labour.
Source: BBC News
Image via WikipediaThe UK Government has voted to adopt the EU's Directive on Human Trafficking and that's great news, says Care's Rachel Davies.
by Rachel DaviesPosted: Tuesday, December 14, 2010, 13:25 (GMT)
This afternoon the European Parliament voted to adopt the recently amended EU Directive on Human Trafficking.
The current text is a result of agreement between the three EU decision making institutions - the Commission, the Council of Ministers and the European Parliament - and contains good provisions for victim care and compensation, training of officials, assistance to child victims and seizing trafficker's profits.
Once voted for by Parliament, the Directive will swiftly be approved by the Council and subsequently come into force in the first part of next year.
Until now, all 27 member states had opted-in, except two – Denmark and the United Kingdom.
Earlier this year the British Government’s decision not to opt-in to the EU Directive on human trafficking caused considerable concern due to the number of aspects upon which the UK was not compliant. The Government stated that it was open to opting in when the Directive eventually becomes law.
Due to the recent amendments, the UK was still not compliant with the Directive.
The proposed EU Directive on Trafficking in Human Beings is the first international trafficking agreement to include clauses which specifically relate to the protection of children.
Articles 12 -14 specify that child victims of trafficking should be provided with adequate assistance and support over both the short and long term for their physical and psychological recovery. Article 14 requires an unaccompanied minor to be represented by a legal guardian, but this is not currently part of the UK court procedure.
At present there are many cases where a trafficked child’s social worker does not attend meetings relating to legal proceedings. This can result in the child having to deal with legal decisions alone with no one to adequately advise or represent him or her. This is unacceptable. Given the complexities of the criminal justice system, children who have been trafficked should be given additional support through a separate representative.
In law, the UK is compliant with the newly amended Article 7 which deals with the non prosecution of trafficking victims. However, in practice there are still cases where trafficking victims – including children – are prosecuted for crimes committed under duress. Appointing a representative for each child would greatly reduce instances of this taking place.
Until now, while the UK has had the power to prosecute in cases where trafficking occurs into, within or out of the UK, it has had no power to prosecute in cases involving British citizens where the trafficking occurs outside of the UK. Article 9 of the Directive will give the UK the option of prosecuting in such cases when the offender is a habitual resident or when the victim is a UK national. The UK will also be given jurisdiction to prosecute in all cases when the offence takes place outside of the UK and the offender is a national.
The Directive increases the help to victims of trafficking so we are pleased that the Prime Minister decided to “look again” at this decision to opt-out. It was very clear that current UK legislation does not rise to all the challenges set out in the Directive. If we didn’t embrace it we would have been failing some of the most vulnerable people in our society.
Rachel Davies is Prostitution and Trafficking Policy Officer at Care
SOURCE:christiantoday.com/
