Sign here Mr Cameron to stop human trafficking - Crime, UK - The Independent

Mother forced into prostitution hands in IoS petition urging No 10 to back EU directive aimed at ending vile trade in people

By Emily Dugan

Sunday, 20 March 2011

FACUNDO ARRIZABALAGA

Oxana Kalemi, in the red coat, with fellow campaigners in Downing Street

• enlarge

Oxana Kalemi's journey to 10 Downing Street has been a long and dangerous one. In 2004, she was trafficked from the Ukraine to Britain and tricked into what could have been a life-sentence of enslaved prostitution.

Yesterday, she struck a blow against the criminals who had enslaved her when she demanded that David Cameron toughens Britain's laws on human trafficking.

She was one of more than 46,000 people who have backed an Independent on Sunday campaign calling on the Government to sign up to European Union regulations on tackling the trade in people.

Tomorrow, the EU directive on human trafficking will become law across most of Europe, bringing with it better protection for victims and increasing the chance of prosecutions against the gangs that exploit them. Still, the British Government refuses to sign up.

Ms Kalemi, 35, handed in the petition alongside representatives from The Independent on Sunday, Anti-Slavery International and the campaigning website 38 Degrees.

She now lives in Yorkshire after escaping the gang who had held her captive in Birmingham, forcing her to have sex with up to 15 men a day. "Today is a big day for me," she said. "I know as a victim how many people are trafficked, This is a global problem. Politicians seem to talk a lot about being tough on trafficking but they need to do something.

"I want to know what Cameron's excuse is for not signing up to such an important law. It's very worrying that he isn't working with the EU to solve this problem. Most of the girls I saw were trafficked from places like Romania and Poland – places in Europe. How can Britain stop this crime if they won't work with Europe?"

Ms Kalemi was forced to leave her children and smuggled into Britain to work as prostitute in 2004 after being trafficked across countless European countries. In 2009, she published the story of her ordeal Mummy Come Home.

Receiving the petition, a Home Office spokeswoman said: "We are looking closely at the finalised text and considering its merits. If we conclude that opting-in would be of benefit, we can apply to opt-in and will make an announcement in due course."

The EU directive was passed by a large majority of European MPs, including Conservative MEPs, on 18 December. Only Britain and Denmark chose not to opt-in and now the other 25 EU members have two years to bring the new law into effect.

Yvette Cooper, the shadow home secretary and minister for women and equalities, said: "Twenty five European governments will stand together this week and introduce new rules to tackle trafficking and modern-day slavery in Europe. It is shameful that the Conservative-led government is still refusing to sign up."

The actress Juliet Stevenson, who is backing the campaign, said last night: "It is an embarrassment that Britain is the only EU country other than Denmark which has refused to sign up.

"What sort of message does this send to the pimps and gangs wanting to traffic people to Britain?"

Gemma Wolfes, campaigns officer at Anti-Slavery International, said: "Traffickers do not respect national borders, so it is vital that the UK follows the common European approach that's needed to defeat the criminalnetworks profiting from this horrendous crime."

Source: independent.co.uk
Sign here Mr Cameron to stop human trafficking - Crime, UK - The Independent

PM urged to back trafficking moves - mirror.co.uk

Image via Wikipedia

9/02/2011

Prime Minister David Cameron should stop pandering to anti-European sentiments within his party and endorse an EU directive on sex trafficking, shadow home secretary Yvette Cooper is to say.

Ms Cooper will condemn the Government's failure to back the measures which aim to co-ordinate European efforts to combat the trade in sex slaves.

She will also outline Labour's approach to tackling human trafficking as millions of people prepare to head to the UK for next year's Olympic Games.

The shadow home secretary will also raise concerns over changes to the UK Human Trafficking Centre and the Child Exploitation and Online Protection (Ceop) centre.

In her speech at the Stopping Traffick '11 conference in central London, Ms Cooper will say: "David Cameron must stop pandering to anti-European prejudices in some parts of his party and sign the directive.

"The Olympic Games, dismantling of the UK Human Trafficking Centre and the Child Exploitation and Online Protection Centre and the deep cuts to voluntary groups will all make ending trafficking of vulnerable women and girls a greater challenge. That's why the Government should back tough new measures and Europe-wide action."

She will add: "Now more than ever we need increased leadership and determined action from this Government if one of the most heinous crimes in today's society is to be stopped."

Conference organisers said almost 4,000 women are brought into the UK each year to work within the sex trade, but Britain was one of only two EU member states that have not opted into the directive.

Immigration Minister Damian Green said: "We are committed to tackling human trafficking and have already put in place many of the commitments that the directive requires.

"We are currently looking closely at the latest draft of the directive and considering its merits. If we conclude that opting in brings benefits to the UK, we will apply to do so."

Source: MIRROR.CO.UK
PM urged to back trafficking moves - mirror.co.uk

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Target brothels or sex traffic will rise, say campaigners | Law | The Observer

Traffic in sex slaves could rise if Britain rejects European anti-vice strategy

• Mark Townsend
• The Observer, Sunday 6 February 2011
• Article history




Police raid a suspected brothel in Surrey. Photograph: Lewis Whyld/PA

Campaigners against sex trafficking call today for a major crackdown on the thousands of brothels in Britain amid accusations that government indifference to the issue is encouraging pimps to target the UK.

The demand comes 10 days after a Romanian father and son, Bogdan, 51, and Marius Nejloveanu, 23, were given jail sentences for trafficking five young women to England. Marius repeatedly raped and beat the women and received the longest sentence for trafficking offences in the UK, 21 years.

One of the women, Marinela Badea, was trafficked in 2008 aged 17 and forced to work in massage parlours and saunas in the Midlands and Manchester. In a shocking interview with the Observer, she described a life of regular rape, brutal beatings and sex with paying clients up to 12 times a day. When she tried to escape, she was savagely punished. "I got punched, a knife in my head, my hair was pulled until it came out," she said.

Europol, the EU criminal intelligence agency, confirmed to the Observer that minors were still being trafficked to Britain and warned that the issue of pan-European trafficking remained a "big" problem. Charities have criticised falling prosecution rates for trafficking.

Abigail Stepnitz, national co-ordinator for the Poppy Project support service, said police should urgently target the brothels masquerading as saunas, massage parlours and private flats. Almost 6,000 have been identified in England and Wales.

Stepnitz said: "The focus on trafficking has been to remove immigration offenders or to prosecute organised criminal networks. From our experience the focus has not neccessarily been on addressing the presence of brothels that create an environment where trafficking can thrive. That has never been the focus."

The last major crackdown, Operation Pentameter 2 in 2008, saw 822 premises visited and the arrest of more than 528 individuals.

Fears are growing among campaigners that ministers appear intent on downgrading trafficking as a priority, a charge denied by the government. In addition, they accuse ministers of attempting to sideline the issue by removing trafficking from the government's violence against women and girls strategy. Tomorrow, trafficking campaigners are due to attend the Home Office for a 90-minute consultation on a proposed new trafficking strategy.

On Wednesday, the government is expected to come under further attack from health experts and MPs at a conference focusing on trafficking issues, entitled Stopping Traffick. Shadow home secretary Yvette Cooper will condemn the government's decision not to sign up to the EU Directive on Human Trafficking. Cooper believes coalition leaders David Cameron and Nick Clegg are sending the wrong signal to traffickers by not endorsing the directive on common European efforts to combat the trade in sex slaves.

Davide Ellero, senior specialist at Europol, said that minors continued to be trafficked for sex to the UK. He said: "The problem is big and it stays big. But there are no statistics at European level because every country monitors in a different way."

Source: The Observer

Target brothels or sex traffic will rise, say campaigners | Law | The Observer

Related articles

• Romania a global center for human trafficking (cnn.com)

Yvette Cooper: Blinded by our hostility to Europe - Commentators, Opinion - The Independent

Thursday, 28 October 2010

The political consensus against modern slavery has been shattered. Despite pre-election promises, the Coalition is turning its back on efforts to crack down on criminal gangs across Europe, and increased help for victims of this heinous crime. By refusing to sign up to the EU directive combating human trafficking, the Government has let its hostility to all things European get in the way of sensible cross-border action. Vulnerable women and children are being betrayed.

Human trafficking is serious, current and growing. Victims are bought and sold, sometimes on a promise of a better life. Instead they are forced to work, to beg, are sexually exploited or worse. Children as young as three are sold like commodities. Victims are being physically abused and even imprisoned. It is estimated that more than one person is trafficked across borders every minute of every day. People selling other people is thought to be worth more than twice the global revenue of Coca-Cola.

Shockingly, Britain is the only EU country other than Denmark to have refused to sign up to the new directive. The Prime Minister claims it, "does not go any further than the law that we have already passed". But that is both wrong and missing the point.

For a start the directive increases our ability to take action where British nationals are involved in crimes committed abroad. Currently, if a British child is kidnapped and taken between European countries, we are limited in our ability to act. We are constrained too in our ability to prosecute British nationals who commit trafficking offences in other EU member states. The directive gives us stronger powers to intervene to help our own citizens.

It increases protection for victims too. Children will have a guardian appointed for them – someone legally responsible for them through the court process and beyond. Given that an estimated 64 per cent of identified child victims go missing from social services, this is not only a new but a necessary step to stop these children being trafficked again.

But even if the Prime Minister were correct and Britain were already leading the way, that would be even more reason to sign up now. British ministers and officials should be involved in drafting the EU law, getting the details right and providing leadership. This is clearly an issue where Europe-wide action can make a difference.

As a great believer in subsidiarity – decisions being made as locally as possible – I don't think the EU should take a view on every issue. But trafficking is transnational. If we fail to work across borders, we make it easier for the criminals and the pimps.

So why then are ministers so opposed? Sadly ministers don't seem capable of rational debate about measures with Europe in the title. Hostility to all things European from a very large part of the Coalition is blinding the whole Government to sensible measures that would help bring dangerous criminals to justice both here and abroad.

For the Conservatives, such knee- jerk scepticism is deep-rooted. But the presence of the Liberal Democrats has clearly done little to temper the government view. Instead, ministers seem to be simply sitting on their hands and hoping European legislation will go away. Euroscepticism seems to have given way to Euro-paralysis. Not pulling out but just pretending Europe isn't there.

Yet by doing so they are betraying our national interest, betraying the vulnerable people forced into slavery, and making it easier for criminal gangs. Over 200 years ago, Conservative William Wilberforce led the fight against trading human beings. Modern Conservatives are letting prejudice prevent them from standing firm against today's traders and traffickers. They need an urgent rethink. It's time to ditch the dogma, and stand up for the victims of modern slavery.

The writer is Shadow Foreign Secretary

Yvette Cooper: Blinded by our hostility to Europe - Commentators, Opinion - The Independent

Source: The Independent