Article 3 of the UN Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punish Trafficking in Persons, Especially Women and Children defines trafficking in human beings as: “the recruitment, transportation, transfer, harbouring or receipt of persons, by means of the threat or the use of force or other forms of coercion, of abduction, of fraud of deception, of the abuse of power or of a position of vulnerability or of the giving or receiving of payments or benefits to achieve the consent of a person having control over another person, for the purpose of exploitation. Exploitation shall include, at a minimum, the exploitation for prostitution of others or other forms of sexual exploitation, forced labour or services, slavery or practices similar to slavery, servitude or the removal of organs.”

Human trafficking has acquired a new dimension in the context of globalisation and most of the victims in Europe are women and girls that come from and outside Europe, with sexual exploitation being the main reason. On Thursday 12 May, at the Strasbourg Plenary Session, MEPs assessed the current European legislation to fight against human trafficking and to protect its victims, coming up with new suggestions and improvements. Among the other propositions, Catherine BEARDER report on Preventing and Combating Trafficking in Human Beings was taken into consideration and the resulting resolution on the Implementation of the Directive 2011/36/EU of 5 April 2011 on preventing and combating trafficking in human beings and protecting its victims from a gender perspective (2015/2118(INI)) adopted. (suite…)