European Commissioner for immigration policy and legal affairs, Anita Gradin, will set to work with fellow Commissioners over the coming months to draw up a European Union action programme to clamp down on the trafficking of women which she describes as, 'the modern slave trade'.
This comes hot on the heels of the Vienna European conference on trafficking of women, held on June 10 and 11, which was co-hosted by the European Commission, the Austrian government and the International Organisation for Migration. Ms Gradin told journalists on June 'I will put forward to the Council and the European Parliament a communication on the trafficking in women for sexual exploitation. This will cover migration policy, police and judicial cooperation, and social aspects to support and protect the victims.
It will also consider European relations with the source countries, where the women are recruited. The Vienna conference highlighted the need for cooperation between Member States and third countrie from which women are lured into prostitution in Western Europe. Recommendations, which are expected to be part of the EU policy, include setting up central national units in each Member State to exchange information.
The Commissioner told the participants in Vienna: 'The slave trade in women is growing, a slave-trade that aims at sexual exploitation. No part of the world seems to be free from this degrading treatment of women.
Women are bought and sold like cattle or commodities. They are deprived of their rights and their dignity. And the direction of the trade is the same all over-it is women from poor conditions that are forced into a deplorable life by men in richer countries. She cited a typical case of one woman from the Dominican Republic from the book 'Stolen Lives' by Sietske Altinks: 'One day I went to visit a friend who was going to discuss job opportunities in Europe. I went with her and met a schoolteacher who knew somebody called Juan who could get me a job in the Netherlands.
