FRA releases a report on child trafficking within the EU

08 July 2009

The study, requested by the European Commission, focuses on a comparison of legal instruments, judicial data and case law among the member states to formulate recommendations, opinions and conclusions aimed at strengthening the role of the EU in the fight against child trafficking. A series of good practises is also included in the report.
The study emphasizes how EU must do more to prevent this awful crime and the FRA calls for better legislation to address the issue. To be improved, in particular, the protection and care for victims.

The FRA Director Morten Kjaerum said, "human trafficking is part of the modern slave trade. Every year, a significant number of children in the EU falls victim to trafficking for sexual exploitation, labour exploitation, adoption and organ extraction. These are alarming signals. We must make every possible effort to protect and support these children”.
Other proposals stamming from the report are to set standards for shelters for unaccompanied minors, policies to prevent disappearance of children and policies for non-punishment of victims of child trafficking.

Finally there are, according to the study, too few convictions in child trafficking cases: in the period 2000-2007, only four EU member states have recorded convictions.
The last part of the report is devoted to identifying good practises: the example of Finland and the Czech Republic are provided as patterns to follow with regard to the identification of victims.

For further information

http://fra.europa.eu/fraWebsite/products/publications_reports/pub_child