Human trafficking “not taken seriously” by EU

“Human trafficking for the purpose of sexual exploitation is not being taken seriously”, the European Union has always considered it “a security issue, and never a human rights one”, states Colette De Troy, director of the European Policy Action Centre on Violence Against Women (EPACVAW).

De Troy, 58, a former criminologist, is leading a battle in bringing violence against women into the European Union’s political agenda. 

She speaks about best practices and struggles in resolving human trafficking, prostitution and violence against women in a not-always-so-friendly environment.

 

Could you tell me how long the European Policy Action Centre on Violence
Against Women has existed? 

The Policy Action Centre was started in 1997 in the aftermath of the fourth world conference on women, which was held in Beijing a few years before.  The idea was to develop action and activities linked with the European Women’s Lobby on violence against women.  The first thing we did was develop a European observatory against violence against women.

 

One of your campaigns, against Human Trafficking, is put forward on your website www. epacvaw.org.  It is a popular cause today, what would you say are the main struggles in effectively combating it? 

I think the main struggle is to actually recognize trafficking for what it is.  We have been working on trafficking a lot in the last ten years, and ever since the beginning we have directly linked trafficking to prostitution, as the majority of trafficking cases are for the purpose of sexual exploitation.

The main struggle now is to recognise this link.  We certainly have a generalised lack of will to recognise that  the sex industry is mostly exploitative to women.  Instead, there is a very strong tendency to agree that sex work is something which is chosen by women.  People do not understand about the trauma, the stress and the difficulty of women to get out of it.  The structural violence which surrounds prostitution is fundamentally linked to the debate on human trafficking.

As a consequence to this lack of understanding in most countries of Europe only the very strong and extremely violent forms of cases are being recognised, like kidnappings, and these are really not the main thing. 

 

Would you say then that policy makers’ agreement on Human Trafficking and disagreement on Prostitution is making the issue un-resolvable?

In a way yes.  Trafficking is now widely acknowledged as being bad, and as you point out, policies in the EU surrounding prostitution vary hugely from country to country.

Furthermore, there is a tendency now to look at the other forms of trafficking.  Current discourses are saying that we have been talking too much about trafficking for sexual exploitation, and we have forgotten about the other forms of trafficking, like field workers, construction workers, domestic workers, etc.  I am not against that, it’s just that it is a complete other form of trafficking, which means that other forms of policies must be created to prevent it and completely different structures need to be put in place.  We cannot just agree on one single strategy for trafficking as a whole.  

So when it comes to trafficking for the purpose of sexual exploitation, prostitution needs to play a major role in policy making.  Right now, this is not being taken seriously. 

 

Is there a country model you think should be followed? 

Yes of course.  We are putting forward the model of Sweden as a good one to follow, because they have not only linked human trafficking with prostitution, but even more to the point they have linked prostitution with gender equality.  Interesting to note that Norway has recently followed in these steps. (Sweden considers prostitution a form of violence against women, so the crime consists in the customer paying for sex, not in the prostitute selling sexual services)

We actually have also been interested in looking at Italy when it comes to helping victims of trafficking.  The famous article 18 of the immigration law grants assistance and asylum to victims of human trafficking willing to denounce traffickers and testify in trials.  This system has enabled more victims to be helped than in other European countries.

What would you say the European Union’s responsibility is in the debate? 

The EU really should take on much more responsibility.

As it stands, there is no policy on violence against women.  They just have a programme, called the DAPHNE programme.  On the other hand they do have strong policies and strong instruments in place when it comes to the judiciary, border corporations and control, and police cooperation between member states.  This is why they have been very active on human trafficking, because it has been seen as a main instrument in cooperating at a judicial, police and border control level, but absolutely not at a  human rights level.

The European institutions clearly say that all legislation regards prostitution and violence against women is the responsibility of member states.

 

Would you say therefore that on a European level Human Trafficking and the Prostitution of foreign women has become more of a Security issue than a Human Rights issue?

Oh it has always been a security issue, and never been a human rights one.  Actually, I’d say the European Union has no human rights policy within Europe.  They do with their foreign policy but not inside.  There is however a policy on equal opportunity, which is why we have been  pushing for years for the EU to have a policy on violence against women.  Our main argument is that equality  between women and men is one of the missions of the EU, and violence against women is the major obstacle against equality, so the EU should have a policy for that.

I think that things may be moving a bit though.  The EU has a road map on gender equality, and they are preparing a new one, so maybe this time they can take violence against women a bit more into consideration.

 

Finally, would you consider yourself a feminist?  Do you think this has become a
“dirty word”?

Yes of course I would consider myself a feminist, and I think it is a wonderful word!  Feminists are the ones who want equality and that’s not a dirty concept.

I think it is very interesting to look at younger women though who seem very reluctant.  So many improvements in legislations and parts of social life have been made, but inequality and discrimination are still there.   It’s important to make it more visible, to show it and deconstruct it to make people and especially women see that feminist action is still needed.

 

www.epacvaw.org

www.womenlobby.org

 

Next week, Wiveca Holst, board member of the Swedish Women’s Lobby, talks about the Swedish legislation on prostitution, why Dutch policemen are visiting their Swedish counterparts, and what “gender budgeting” means.