Traffick in women growing

Date: 17/04/1997

EU JUSTICE and home affairs ministers will meet next week to try to reach agreement on how to coordinate the fight against trafficking in women.

The number of women forcibly sent to the Union, especially from central and eastern Europe, is on the increase, according to the International Organisation for Migration (IOM).

It estimates that thousands of women from around the world are being brought into the EU for sexual purposes with, for example, Nigerian women sent to Italy, Russians to Germany, Brazilians to Spain and Albanian women to Greece.

Sweden, the UK and Ireland appear to be less affected by the problem than member states on the mainland of Europe, according to the IOM.

It says that only the Netherlands and Belgium have taken significant steps to tackle the problem and insists it is vital for ministers to agree on a coordinated approach to the issue when they meet next Thursday and Friday (24-26 April) at a special conference in The Hague.

“The women are getting younger and younger. The ministerial meeting should focus on getting the member states to move in the same direction and combat the problem together,” said Nicholas Hilgert, of the IOM.

There is, as yet, not even an internationally accepted definition of trafficking nor any statistics to help measure the true extent of the problem, although the European Commission, together with non-governmental organisations, is planning to publish figures within the year.