Committee on Women’s Rights and Gender Equality Ordinary meeting HEARING Joint meeting Committee on Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs
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FEMM European Parliament
Follow its sittingsMaria Walsh
Thank you. Now we'll hand it over to our key experts with seven minutes. I'll hand it over to Ms. Diane Schmitt, again just to remind everybody, is the EU Anti-Trafficking Coordinator from the Commission.
Diane Schmitt
Thank you very much, Chair. Thank you both for organizing this and also I would like to thank the committee, the FEMM and LIBE, for the commitment on dealing with trafficking in human beings, which is not always obvious and which is not very often discussed at political level. Trafficking is still a hidden crime and is not well known even if it's happening next to us. Interesting to note that the number of officially registered victims in the European Union has increased in the last years. It has increased by 40% in 2022 and is stable since then around 10,000 victims per year, but many more remain undetected.
To underline also what you said, Maria Walsh, that the majority of victims are women and girls and there are also many victims, 17%, who are children. So this leads me to the first point: the importance of prevention, awareness raising, detection of potential victims in order to protect them. Some of you might remember that when the military aggression against Ukraine started, many women and children arrived at the border and together with different stakeholders and also with the Union agencies, with civil society organizations, we have put together an action plan which was then implemented in order to prevent trafficking of those who arrived at the border.
And prevention worked. Another consequence was that victims of other citizenships were detected or were informed where to get help, and this probably contributed to the increase of identified victims in 2022. So the first lesson also for the strategy is that when combating human trafficking is a priority in the EU and at national level, the situation on the ground can be improved thanks to a coordinated involvement of different actors and especially the resources capacity put at their disposal. Of course, protection also helps and in this case...
Speaker 4
I'm just going to ask you to slow down for our translators. As someone who's usually flagged, I'm delighted there's more than one on here, but you might just speak a little bit slower.
Diane Schmitt
Thank you, sorry for that. So the second lesson is anticipation and crisis management, which are gaining more importance. The current geopolitical situation with armed conflict in the region, economic instability and climate change create new vulnerabilities to human trafficking, especially of women and children. We need a clear situational and threat assessment as well as emergency response plan in case needed. In the last year, the European Union has made significant progress in strengthening legislative and operational measures.
You mentioned already the new EU anti-trafficking directive, which was reinforced thanks to the European Parliament and your commitment. Member states have until the 15th of July to transpose the modified directive, so not a lot of time left, and the transposition and correct implementation will have to be also a priority in the coming months and years. From an operational point of view, Europol has been reinforced through the adoption of the regulation on the migrant smuggling center, which is also covering trafficking in human beings, which is not always known, which was also just mentioned, but not always everyone realized that Europol was reinforced. We have also created the focus group of specialized prosecutors at Eurojust to improve prosecutions, and operational cooperation has been reinforced including through EMPACT. The European Labor Authority was involved in operations linked to labor exploitation.
I give only a few examples, but you will find much more in the sixth progress report on the progress made on trafficking in the EU, which will be released by the European Commission together with the new strategy. We have to build on these achievements and focus on some remaining shortcomings, including in relation to early identification, the protection in cross-border situations and the judicial response to the crime. However, trafficking is changing and will continue to evolve. First, new forms of exploitation are emerging and human trafficking is more and more linked with other crimes, including through forced criminality of especially young people. Which means also that there is a big impact on our security and the responses have also to be seen in the context of the EU security strategy.
Second, cross-border dimension and the link with migration are stronger, with a majority of identified victims being nowadays migrants and with criminal networks active across borders. This also means a clear link with the implementation of the pact and the importance of cooperation with non-EU partners around the world.
Third, trafficking has a stronger impact on our economy and leads to unfair competition. Trafficking for labor exploitation has increased and needs to be better addressed. Fourth, and this is of course one of the most important points, it is facilitated by modern technology and artificial intelligence, increasing the risk and the outreach, facilitating recruitment and exploitation. At the same time, it can be used in a positive way. The integration of digital tools will have to be a key dimension, as in other areas too, with legislation adapted to the quickly evolving technologies.
And fifth, it triggers enormous profits. It is linked to corruption and hidden through infiltration in legal economy, so which makes also the cooperation with the private sector much more important. In this context, there is a need to renew and strengthen the EU strategic framework and actions. To define the content, many consultation have been conducted, and indeed this hearing will also contribute to shaping the content of the strategy. Overall, stakeholders called for a victim-centered approach, multi-sectoral crisis resilience strategy, integrating digital innovation and stronger international partnership to address both traditional and evolving trends.
In this context, our agencies have an important role, and the reinforcement of the mandates of some of them, Europol, Eurojust, and the European Labor Authority, can also have a positive impact on combating trafficking in human beings. You know that there will be proposals from the Commission. The need for targeted funding to enhance victims' protection and preventive efforts has also been underlined during the consultation. Finally, human trafficking cannot be addressed in isolation. The strategy will be an opportunity to better interlink with other policy areas and initiatives through a comprehensive, cross-sectoral and well-coordinated approach.
And of course, the recent directive on protection of victims of crime has also an impact on the protection of victims of traffic, and both directives are interlinked. Thank you very much for your attention.
Maria Walsh
Thank you very- very much, Ms. Schmidt, I appreciate that. Highlighting your point on judicial response to crime, I'm going to hand it over to Ms. Alexandra Diaz. I think I'm getting worse. A judge specializing in gender-based violence with more than two decades of experience in the judiciary coming from Spain. So I'll hand it over to you for seven minutes.
Maria Auxiliadora Díaz Velázquez
Thank you for this invitation. It is an honor to appear before this chamber today to address one of the gravest contemporary violation of human rights, human trafficking. And we must state this with absolute legal and political clarity. Human trafficking constitutes an extreme form of gender-based violence. I will start in English and then continue in Spanish, my mother tongue, where I feel most comfortable speaking with full freedom.
We are speaking of one of the gravest forms of contemporary criminality, but also of one of the deepest denials of human dignity. Human trafficking is not a marginal phenomenon. It is not a peripheral anomaly of the system. It is a direct blow to the very heart of the European project because it reduces the human person to an object, an instrument, and a commodity. Este fenómeno criminal constituye hoy una de las mayores vulneraciones de los derechos humanos en Europa, porque allí donde una persona es captada, trasladada, sometida y explotada para generar un beneficio económico, no estamos únicamente ante un tema de criminalidad organizada.
Estamos ante una vulneración directa de la dignidad humana, principio fundamental de nuestro sistema jurídico europeo.
Speaker 6
I apologize for interrupting, you might speak just a little bit slower. Thank you very much. I'm sorry, we have so much to do as women, but our translators might just ask for a slower pace.
Maria Auxiliadora Díaz Velázquez
Europa ha dado un paso importante con la directiva 2024/1712. Sin embargo, el verdadero desafío lo tenemos y comienza ahora, para convertir esos avances normativos en capacidades reales de prevención, de protección y de persecución eficaz. Precisamente por ello, la futura estrategia de la Unión Europea representa una gran oportunidad. Yo diría que todo ello, desde mi punto de vista y desde los 20 años que llevo en un juzgado especializado de violencia sobre la mujer y donde he podido tratar temas de trata de seres humanos con fines de explotación sexual en numerosas ocasiones, e incluso antes de la incorporación del Convenio de Estambul, es decir, sin necesidad del Convenio de Estambul, en un caso específico de Loverboy, apliqué el Convenio de Estambul sin estar traspuesto al ordenamiento jurídico español y doté de una máxima protección a una víctima de trata de seres humanos con fines de explotación sexual como víctima de violencia de género en cuanto que no se encuentra sometida a, por ejemplo, la necesidad de la denuncia previa y por lo tanto se alcanzó la máxima protección tanto para ella como para su hijo. Por lo tanto, yo creo que eso es uno de las grandes cuestiones que debemos plantearnos.
La nueva estrategia debe girar fundamentalmente sobre la víctima, sobre la prevención de la víctima, sobre la no necesidad de punición a esa víctima, sobre la necesidad de que se le va a dar protección con independencia de la denuncia, con independencia de su situación irregular y de sus estatutos administrativos. En primer lugar, como he dicho, es necesario trasponer la directiva 1712 en cada uno de los Estados miembros. Tenemos que criminalizar la demanda. Sin demanda no existe mercado. Tenemos que elaborar planes específicos para prevenir la trata, especialmente cuando hablamos de víctimas menores de edad.
Los menores son invisibles, invisibles, invisibles a los ojos de nuestra sociedad, y mucho más cuando la propia trata es invisible. Debemos dotar de esa máxima protección a las víctimas, a los niños y a las niñas que se encuentran afectos a este tipo de violencia. Además, otra de las cuestiones muy importante es la necesidad de recopilar datos. Sin datos no podemos adoptar políticas públicas. Es necesario contabilizar.
Es necesario recopilar datos precisos, anonimizados y publicarlos a través de estadísticas de cada uno de los Estados miembros. Y desde aquí me propongo además a solicitar, yo creo que sería una gran novedad que Europa diera el primer paso, la creación de un observatorio europeo contra la trata de seres humanos, mediante la recopilación de cada uno de los Estados miembros sobre la situación de la trata para ver la situación real en la que nos encontramos y sobre ello poder adoptar políticas públicas encaminadas a proteger a esas mujeres y a esos niños. Es fundamental un observatorio. Sin datos no sabemos qué situación es la que tenemos. Estamos hablando, estamos mirando o andando a ciegas ante un verdadero drama de toda nuestra sociedad.
En segundo lugar, la prevención basada en esa vulnerabilidad estructural. Las víctimas no aparecen de manera espontánea, sino que esas víctimas son captadas en contextos de pobreza, violencia de género, de exclusión social, de discriminación, de conflictos armados o de dependencia migratoria. Por ello, Europa debe avanzar hacia una política preventiva capaz de llevar a cabo una identificación temprana de todas las víctimas y reducir esos espacios de vulnerabilidad.
Otro elemento importante es incorporar la interseccionalidad. Nos hemos olvidado de ella. La normativa internacional y europea habla de esa interseccionalidad, pero es necesario ejecutarla. Esa discriminación, atención sobre todo a esa discriminación por razón de origen o de etnia. Por otra parte, la trata es un negocio.
Debemos atacar a los tratantes. Debemos no decir no atacar, podíamos decirlo a las víctimas. No se le puede penar a la víctima. La víctima es explotada. Debemos realizar políticas encaminadas a atacar a esos tratantes y que por lo tanto exigir responsabilidad a todos aquellos que obtengan beneficio económico de forma directa o indirecta de la trata.
Por otra parte, como ha comentado anteriormente, es necesaria esa lucha contra la trata digital. Todos sabemos que se ha producido una una una gran aumento, un incremento importante de las situaciones de trata e incluso hemos observado, tal y como ustedes ya han manifestado, esa esa incremento no, sino ese descenso de número de víctimas de de trata o de seres humanos con fines de explotación sexual. No creo, no me lo creo. Yo lo que creo es que a través de la forma digital nos estamos invisibilizando un gran número de mujeres que se encuentran a día de hoy explotadas. La futura estrategia debe incorporar obligaciones concretas.
Por otra parte, es necesario esa protección efectiva de todas las víctimas con independencia de la denuncia. No es necesario que haya una denuncia para llevar a cabo esa protección. También desde aquí es necesario aplicar y decir a todos los operadores jurídicos, fundamentalmente al poder judicial, de la necesidad de aplicar la perspectiva de género para que algo que inicialmente es desigual mediante la aplicación de la perspectiva de género se convierta en igual. La dignidad humana no puede depender del estatus administrativo de la persona explotada. Por lo tanto, no confundamos, señores, lo que es la trata con el control migratorio, otro de las cuestiones importantes.
Human trafficking stands as one of the defining moral tests of European law. Wherever a person is recruited, controlled, exploited and silent, it is not only the state that fails in this essential duty of protection. It is also the very civilization promise upon which Europe claims to stand that is reduced. That is why our responsibility is as urgent as it is impossible to ensure that no human being is ever again treated as merchandising, as an instrument or as a thing. That is the true meaning of European action and that must remain our line of resolve.
Thank you very much for your attention.
Marina Kaljurand
Thank you, Ms. Díaz Velázquez. And we will continue with our next speaker online. Our next speaker is Ms. Petya Nestorova, who has been active for years in the field of preventing and combating torture and is since 2010 the Executive Secretary of the monitoring mechanism of the Council of Europe's Convention on Action against Trafficking in Human Beings. And in that capacity, Ms. Nestorova has also been involved in capacity building activities. So, Madam, please, you have the floor.
Petya Nestorova
Good afternoon and thank you very much for inviting me on behalf of the Council of Europe to this very timely and important hearing. The regional organization that I represent, the Council of Europe, has been instrumental in developing and implementing standards in the area of combating human trafficking as part of its broader mandate to protect and promote human rights in its 46 member states and beyond. Last year, we marked the 20th anniversary of the adoption of the Council of Europe Convention on Action against Trafficking in Human Beings, which currently has 48 state parties, including all of the EU member states, as well as countries which are candidates for EU membership.
Since 2010, the Council of Europe expert group GRETA, which monitors the implementation of the convention, has conducted three rounds of evaluation, publishing over 150 country reports which trace the evolution of international and national anti-trafficking efforts. The ongoing fourth evaluation round of the convention focuses on vulnerabilities to human trafficking and the use of information and communication technology. Drawing on its substantial monitoring experience, GRETA submitted, made a submission to the consultation on the new strategy. We note from these 16 years of monitoring the convention that many countries in Europe have amended their legislation to comply with the international obligations. For example, 22 countries now have specific legal provisions concerning the non-punishment of victims of trafficking, a considerable increase compared to when we started.
Most countries have amended their criminal code provisions in the light of the international definition of trafficking and several have increased the penalties for this offense. However, not all countries, including some EU member states, have criminalized trafficking in accordance with the international definitions and it is important that we have harmonization in this respect. We see some progress when it comes to the procedures for identifying victims of trafficking, enabling a series of actors, including labor inspectors, asylum officials, and civil society organizations, to perform victim identification, rather than leaving it exclusively within the competence of law enforcement. Proper identification requires the setting up of national referral mechanisms and we see that countries that have such mechanisms identify more victims and refer them to assistance. However, not all European Union member states have national referral mechanisms yet.
We also see that there continues to be a lack of assistance, in particular shelters for male victims and child victims, even though the numbers of such victims continue to grow. Not enough is done to support the rehabilitation of victims, particularly their access to the labor market, which is blocked by various barriers, including access to residence. As previous speakers said, trafficking for the purpose of sexual exploitation continues to account for the majority of identified victims, but the patterns of recruitment and exploitation are changing. The digitalization of sexual exploitation is no longer limited to recruitment, control of victims, or connecting them with clients. It now extends to the sexual act itself.
Younger and younger victims, 12, 13-year-old, are recruited over Snapchat and other social platforms. We see also a rise in victims from Latin America, with criminal networks bringing young women and transgender persons, transiting usually through Spain or Portugal. The criminalization of the use of services of victims, where it exists, is rarely applied or rarely results in penalties. Also related to the gender dimension of trafficking, GRETA is currently following very closely cases of exploitation of surrogacy in Georgia. As previous speakers said, trafficking for the purpose of labor exploitation is on the rise and it has emerged as the predominant form of exploitation in a growing number of EU member states.
Labor trafficking occurs both in the formal and the informal economy, in different sectors and in different stages of business supply chains, which is why it is so important to engage with businesses and to ensure that there is due diligence legislation in all countries.
Combating trafficking for the purpose of labor exploitation requires the involvement of a whole range of agencies, including trade unions and labor inspectors, and as I said, the private sector. We see that there is a relative lack of prosecuted cases for this form of trafficking. Another trend which was mentioned by Diane Schmitt is the increase in trafficking for the purpose of exploitation in criminal activities. In some EU member states, this form of trafficking accounts up to 30% of identified victims. At the same time, it is relatively unknown or underrepresented in other countries due to lack of attention to this phenomenon.
A final point is around the low number of convictions for human trafficking, as well as insufficient confiscations of traffickers' assets. This is a repeated concern in many GRETA reports. Over-reliance on victims' testimonies and the quick return of victims to their countries of origin impacts the authorities' ability to prosecute and convict offenders. A recurrent challenge is that human trafficking cases are requalified as other offenses, and this deprives victims often of access to certain rights. We need more training and specialization of prosecutors and judges, and also ensuring that the resources which are given to specialized law enforcement are actually used for the purpose and not deprioritized and redirected.
And the final point when it comes to victims, we notice that there is a lack of effective access to compensation, which is crucial for reinstating the rights of victims. And this is coupled with difficulties in obtaining free legal aid to support compensation. Even though victims can in principle apply for state compensation in most countries, state compensation schemes are very rarely applied to trafficking victims, and in some countries, there is still no legislation on state compensation. I think I've exhausted my seven minutes. I really had to focus on just a few points.
Thank you for your attention.
Marina Kaljurand
Thank you, Ms. Nestorova. And our next speaker is Mr. Nenad Naca, who has worked in criminal investigations at both national and international levels, and currently he leads the Europol's dedicated team for combating trafficking in human beings and related exploitation. Mr. Naca, please, you have the floor.
Nenad Naca
Thank you very much. Let me assure you the pronunciation was fine for the name on both sides. Thank you for this. Yeah, this is a privilege to be here, and as mentioned a couple of times here, human trafficking is a different type of the crimes than we usually see. It's still involving organized crime much more than one could think.
And unlike others, human trafficking instead of commodity, they have human beings. And that's often being forgotten when people are dealing with the human trafficking. There is also one more thing which we are investing a lot of energy and a lot of time on our side, which is breaking the stereotypes. And when I'm saying breaking the stereotypes, I'm going to briefly touch upon one when I was entering this room, and there was a flyer right in the entrance, and you will see it if you haven't when you leave it. And on the flyer, there is a possible victim of human trafficking which is, you know, in a dark corner, probably beaten, with visible tie of hands, restrictions on movement.
And we usually when we are speaking about human trafficking, this is something how it's seen. And you know what is the problem? This is not a human trafficking only. That's not being outside. And actually, we are creating wrong impression for the people that victims are only the one who are being beaten, are only the one who are being behind the bars, are the one who are being chained, while the reality is in majority of the cases different.
I'm going to share a little bit about this in my presentation.
If we can move to another slide, please. So bear in mind when one is coming from Europol, we don't have access to all the databases in Europe and abroad. So that's why it's more for illustration. But this is what we see at Europol year after year after year. And what we see is what has been said here as well.
Sexual exploitation is the one which is the most reported, but there are others. Labour particularly, and they are the one which are even less represented, but it doesn't mean they are less horrifying and it doesn't mean that we need to pay attention to those. So they are still happening. If we can move to another slide, please. And what is also important to say here when when we are expressing new modus operandi and what is intelligence picture and how it change in human trafficking crime area, I like to speak about challenges and the new waves.
And the challenges is again mentioned here, digitalization of human trafficking. There is no case, and I emphasize this, there is no case without digitalization. When I started leading the team at Europol, I asked my team to have strategic indicators so I'll be able to follow it, how many cases are with digitalization. Now I give instructions, you don't need to follow it anymore. There is no absolutely any other case.
Why? Because no one here is without the mobile phone, smartphone most likely. So it's already there. So in whatever phase of the exploitation, regardless if it's recruiting, if it's transporting, it's controlling, it's harboring, and finally exploiting and money laundering, there is digitalization in one way or another. So how to fight it, we have to be present. We have to have tools.
We have to as a society give tools to the one who are responsible for fighting it to be able to fight it. What else? The cellular structure of the human trafficking is something that we are seeing more and more, but I will speak a little bit more about that later, so I will not go into details. And again, the fast rotations. That's something which works perfectly for the criminals, especially in the landscape like EU, like Europe is, where just one hour of driving and you're in another country.
So it's another jurisdiction. For the criminals, it's something which is really helping them to spread, and for the law enforcement, it's something which is actually hindering their work. That's why the cross-border investigation is the core focus of Europol activities. Can I go to another slide, please? It's not only that.
What we spoke, when we speak about organized crime, we need to understand that, you know, landscape, criminal landscape is evolving, is changing. It has been mentioned already here, but what does it mean is that I have arrested a lot of and dismantled a lot of criminal networks. And in the courtrooms, sometimes similar to this one, among the public there were members of other criminal networks. And what they were doing, they were learning. They were learning how we did it.
They were learning what is the system, what is the justice system. They were learning how they can avoid it in the future. You know, the main aim of any criminal network is not to avoid bit investigated, is avoid avoid to be detected, to work under the radar. And the criminal networks involved in human trafficking are no different at all. So what they are doing now is that violence that I mentioned is not gone.
It's going dark. It's invisible often, or it's less visible. Why? Because they realized if they are using violence against something they treat as a commodity, they are actually doing two things negative for themselves. They are reducing the value of this commodity because it cannot be used for what they want, and the second thing, they are drawing attention, which they don't want.
So instead of that, and third thing actually, we can always say that person wants to cooperate with the law enforcement. So what they did is manipulation more and more. It's making a lot of headaches in legal systems, judicial discussions, and furthermore, victims are being manipulated, so not so eager to communicate with the one who wants to help them. That's another thing we always need to have in mind. Yes, we find a way, we work with the NGOs.
Don't forget, they are the one who are participating in the courtrooms, and they've found out, and now even the NGOs are not seen as a friends often. So that's another thing what we are seeing. And I could speak a lot and probably obviously I'm going to go beyond my time, so I'm just going to ask if I can move to another slide. And it's very important here to understand that the criminal picture that we have used to see, like the one in the back of this slide, has changed. Our legal system, our academia, everything is prepared and experienced in combating organized crime, which we are seeing as pyramidal structure, hierarchy.
But now what we are dealing more and more in every organized crime, and again in human trafficking in particular, is this what we call cellular-based organized crime networks, where they work in cells. And these cells, they don't need to be in the same country. Actually, they are not even on the same continent sometimes. We are speaking about, we were speaking about different activities, we are speaking about here victims coming from Latin America. So we have seen cases where everything is being orchestrated from Latin America, and it cannot work without cooperation with them, and it cannot work without identifying high-value targets in every one of that.
Can we go to another slide, please? Next slide. So what is the most important role for us is to find and collect data, to have this circle from cycle that was in the previous slide, but it will take too much time, that we are present from the moment when we are collecting information, analyzing information, profiling high-value targets, reacting measures, arresting people, seizing evidence, but then to do it again with the help of private sector, without whom law enforcement will not be able to cope with the challenges of the modern, of the modern criminal networks. Luckily, we are also closely cooperating with EMPACT, and there are some positive examples there as well. On this slide, you can see operational task force as a Europol response for the criminal networks used in every organized crime, particularly now in the human trafficking as well, and that's the one where we have actually applied the methodology where we are targeting the persons who are the most important in the criminal network.
Next slide. With the EMPACT activities and close collaboration like the hackathon, and the next slide, and joint action days, we are able to conduct set of preventive measures that will help us first to understand what is the scope of the activities of criminal network, and next one to be connected with the all the actors who are responsible for taking activities in fighting it.
And that's it from my side. Thank you very much and apologies for going beyond the time.
Maria Walsh
No, thank you. Thank you to all our speakers. Really struck by your line on it's not gone, it's gone, it's gone dark. Really stark reminder of the absence of a very lucrative industry that we've learned from all of you. We are now going to to our political groupings.
Each coordinator or member replacing him or her will take the floor for a minute and a half, so 90 seconds. And I believe we will start with myself, is it? Okay. Nothing like a bit of nepotism sitting in the chair. But on behalf of the EPP group, I'm delighted to ask my question.
And again, to stress the the thanks for attending and really detailing the challenge ahead and the priorities linked to the upcoming strategy. And as one, as I as I mentioned in my earlier intervention, as one of the many MEPs who worked on the revision of the EU trafficking directive, I welcome I really welcome this this discussion in turn of shaping the next strategy. The the revised directive strengthened victims' protections, addressed online facilitated trafficking, expanded the tools available to member states, but its implementation implementation must now be our focus. In Ireland, in my own member state, 67 victims of human trafficking were formally identified in 2024, up from 53 in 2023. Yet, as the point shared, it's not gone, it's gone dark.
So we all know there's more victims remain hidden and sadly more perpetrators who are involved in in these crimes. Recent reporting across Northern Ireland and Ireland highlights this challenge. A BBC investigation found that more than 500 women a day are being advertised for sexual services online, while the Sexual Exploitation Research and Policy Institute has warned that many show clear indicators of trafficking, coercion, and organized exploitation. So as we shape this next EU anti-trafficking strategy, we must strengthen victim identification, tackle online embedded trafficking, and ensure survivors have access to real support. And I think each one of our four speakers highlighted that.
So my question to the panel is this: what concrete measures should the new EU anti-trafficking strategy include to ensure that the commitments made in the revised directive deliver measurable improvements in all of that, considering across the board we heard from cellular-based networks, contemporary criminality, emergency response plans, lack of compensation, and they're just a couple of the highlights that we heard from each of your speeches. So what is it that we need to ensure that is in there as policymakers? Thank you very, very much. And then I'll head to S&D with MEP Sippel for a minute and a half.
Juan Fernando López Aguilar
Thank you, but I will give the floor first to Juan for the LIBE committee.
Yeah, thank you. I thank all the presentations we just heard, absolutely interesting and relevant to our matter. But I would actually raise a couple of questions to Diane Schmitt as anti-trafficking coordinator and an additional question to Petya Nestorova representing the Council of Europe Convention of Action against Trafficking. So first as to Diane Schmitt, because it relates of course to the directive we finally put in place, which is a piece of legislation related to some criminal law in the making, regarding particularly the point of knowingly uses of services provided by victims of trafficking of human beings becoming a criminal offenses in all of the criminal codes of the member states.
And it actually is particularly cruel when it comes to victims of trafficking and that's precisely the point. I would like you to dwell on after after after the time that that has elapsed ever since, two years, July 2026 is two years since we finally adopted. How is the transposition into national law? Are you caring about member states making the necessary change as to the criminal codes in order to bring about a new legislation to criminalize the knowingly use of sexual services provided by victims of trafficking, labor services for that matter too, but sexual services especially. And then when it comes to the fact that majority of victims are women and girls who have been trafficked for the sake of sexual exploitation, how will the new anti-trafficking strategy that the European Commission is supposed to release anytime soon addressing the gender dimension of this phenomenon?
And as to Petya Nestorova, if I'm allowed, I would like to dwell on the GRETA attention to interface between trafficking in human beings and asylum over the last years. The directive contains a new article stating that member states are ensuring complementarity and coordination between the authorities involved in anti-trafficking activities and the asylum authorities. All that victims shall be able to exercise their right to apply for international protection. So what is the assessment of the member states' practices and what are the recommendations of the Council of Europe and the GRETA group as member states in this regard? Thank you.
Laura Estrada
Thank you very much, Chair, and thank you to all our guests for their insights in this really crucial topic. I was wondering since we do know that human trafficking is a very transnational crime in its very nature. So I wonder what the level, the state of play of the level of cooperation among member states is on this topic because I'm assuming that we need higher level of of cooperation among member states to fight the human trafficking in a I mean, in actively. So thank you for that.
Speaker 11
Thank you. You balanced out your colleague's speaking time there. Thank you. I'll head to PfE and Mr. Leggeri.
Speaker 12
Bon, nous pouvons multiplier les stratégies, les plans d'action et les directives, mais si par idéologie nous refusons de nommer les causes, nous n'enrayerons pas le drame de la traite humaine. Selon les données Eurostat publiées en 2026, 9678 victimes de traite des êtres humains ont été enregistrées dans l'Union européenne en 2024. Un chiffre qui ne reflète qu'une partie du phénomène, bien sûr, de nombreuses victimes restant non détectées. Les femmes et les filles demeurent majoritaires, représentant 63 % des victimes enregistrées. Les ressortissants de pays tiers constituent désormais la majorité des victimes recensées avec 64 % des cas.
Un peu moins d'un quart des victimes sont des mineurs. Comment parler sérieusement de traite sans parler d'immigration illégale, de réseaux mafieux et de passeurs ?
Les femmes migrantes sont parmi les premières victimes de ces routes clandestines : violences sexuelles, prostitution forcée, exploitation domestique, chantage aux papiers, dépendance totale à des réseaux criminels. Fin 2024, la commission femme de l'ONU a rappelé d'ailleurs que les routes irrégulières exposent régulièrement les femmes et les filles aux violences sexistes, à l'enlèvement, à la traite, à l'exploitation sexuelle ou au travail forcé. Notre devoir est donc clair : protéger et soigner les victimes, oui, mais aussi briser les filières en luttant contre l'immigration illégale, condamner les passeurs et reprendre le contrôle de nos frontières. Enfin, cette stratégie doit avoir le courage de condamner la gestation pour autrui, pas seulement l'exploitation de la GPA comme c'est le cas dans la directive, mais la GPA elle-même. L'utérus des femmes doit échapper aux logiques de marché par respect de la dignité humaine, le corps des femmes n'est pas à louer et les bébés ne sont pas à vendre.
Le rapport de la rapporteuse spéciale des Nations Unies sur les violences faites aux femmes et aux filles, Reem Alsalem, présenté en 2025, identifie la GPA comme une manifestation de violence et d'exploitation et appelle à son éradication partout dans le monde, appel que nous devons relayer. On ne combattra pas la traite en tolérant des marchés qui organisent l'exploitation du corps des femmes et la marchandisation des enfants. La dignité humaine n'est pas à vendre.
Speaker 14
And apologies, Mr. Leggeri, I've corrected from my colleague here on my pronunciation for your surname, so I hope I did okay on that one.
Fabrice Leggeri
Merci, Madame la Présidente, et merci à nos invités. Mes questions porteront davantage sur les compétences de LIBE et en particulier, je souhaiterais savoir du point de vue de la Commission européenne et d'Europol si vous pensez utiliser dans les prochains mois le changement stratégique, en tout cas les évolutions du mandat d'Europol, du mandat de Frontex, peut-être aussi les coopérations à développer entre Frontex, Europol et Eurojust afin d'aider les États membres à mieux détecter la partie du trafic d'êtres humains qui n'est pas encore connue, afin de mieux combattre mais aussi afin de mieux anticiper. Et en ce qui concerne la traite d'êtres humains qui passe par les frontières, parce que comme l'a dit ma collègue, on ne peut pas parler de traite d'êtres humains sans parler évidemment de l'immigration illégale et de l'exploitation des migrants, je souhaiterais savoir s'il y a une vulnérabilité du côté des nationalités qui sont exemptées de visa. On a entendu parler de l'Amérique latine et sauf erreur, beaucoup de nationalités d'Amérique latine sont exemptées de visa pour entrer dans l'Union européenne. Est-ce que ces femmes, qui généralement je crois sont des femmes, sont exploitées sexuellement en Europe, entrent en profitant de l'exemption de visa ou bien est-ce qu'on a affaire à des traites d'êtres humains avec des franchissements illégaux des frontières ?
Je crois que c'est une réflexion qu'il faudra avoir. Et puis peut-être un dernier point plus général si d'autres invités souhaitent répondre : le rôle des ONG. Les ONG sont très largement financées, on l'a vu, dans beaucoup de domaines et peuvent-elles jouer un rôle utile pour anticiper dans les pays de départ et faire en sorte que les victimes de traite d'êtres humains et en particulier les femmes ne soient pas victimes ? Donc est-ce que les ONG pourraient nous aider à empêcher cette immigration d'exploitation des femmes ? Merci beaucoup.
Maria Walsh
Thank you very much. On behalf of ECR, we have Mr. Ilsalvini representing both LIBE and FEMM, correct? Okay.
Speaker 15
Grazie mille, Presidente. Grazie innanzitutto ai relatori che hanno parlato di questo argomento, ma che in generale sono impegnati nel combattere una delle piaghe peggiori della nostra società, perché quando si parla della tratta di esseri umani, in particolare quando sono coinvolti i minori o quando sono coinvolte donne per sfruttamento sessuale, è chiaro che dobbiamo cercare di essere uniti come istituzioni e come gruppi politici per cercare di contrastare tutto questo, quindi grazie per il vostro impegno.
Io richiamo, come è stato fatto poco fa, una revisione che c'è stata nel 2024 per quanto riguarda la direttiva contro la tratta, nella quale è stata inclusa anche l'utero in affitto, appunto come forma di sfruttamento e di tratta di esseri umani. Per questo quindi io chiedo, visto che nell'ultima strategia non era compreso questo tipo di pratica abietta, anche perché era precedente alla direttiva di cui ho appena parlato, chiedo se si ha intenzione di includere l'utero in affitto all'interno della nuova strategia dell'Unione Europea, quindi all'interno di questa nuova strategia per quanto riguarda il contrasto alla tratta, anche perché sappiamo benissimo, e lo conferma anche Eurojust questo, che ci sono reti internazionali fatte di medici, cliniche, intermediari, broker, banche che lucrano per milioni, milioni, milioni di euro sulla pelle delle donne e dei bambini che vengono ridotti a merce di compravendita. Quindi vi chiedo innanzitutto alla coordinatrice antitratta della Commissione Europea se verrà inserita e come verrà inserita concretamente nella nuova strategia la lotta all'utero in affitto e alla compravendita di bambini. E al rappresentante invece di Europol chiedo quali strumenti investigativi europei servono per colpire maggiormente le reti criminali per quanto riguarda questo tipo di crimine che è a livello internazionale e qui anche in Europa. Oltre a questo aggiungo, come è stato detto poco fa, quando si parla di tratta di esseri umani non possiamo che non parlare anche di coloro che sfruttano i migranti, sfruttano la loro debolezza per cercare appunto di guadagnarci.
Quindi anche da questo punto di vista vi chiedo come insieme possiamo fare come istituzioni, ONG, associazioni per cercare di fare in modo appunto di colpire questi criminali. Grazie mille.
Marina Kaljurand
Thank you, Mr. Inselvini. That concludes the first round of questions and I will give floor back to our speakers. There will be a second round of questions. We're concluding the first round with four political groups and after that, after answers, we continue with the second round of political groups. So you will have the chance to speak.
But at the moment we'll go back to the speakers.
Maria Walsh
Just for clarification, as my colleague had shared, we did four political groups considering this is two joint committees, LIBE and FEMM. You will get your time in the next round with a minute and a half and then we'll do catch the eye. So you will have plenty of time. I'm sorry. With great respect to the decision of both chairs here, you will get in the next round.
You're not losing out on speaking time. It is simply because of the amount of colleagues that our speakers have to address and you will come into the next round.
Marina Kaljurand
So we will continue now with our speakers with the same order as you spoke before. I know I'm putting you in a difficult position. You just have a couple of minutes to answer. Some questions were very specific, some questions were more general, but I'm still looking towards you and expecting to get the answers. And we start with Ms. Schmidt, please.
You have the floor.
Diane Schmitt
Thank you very much. So, the first question was about the anti-trafficking directive. As I already said, I think it should be a priority of the next months and the next years. As regards the transposition, the transposition deadline is the 15th of July, so we'll see how it went. The Commission has organized several workshops with the Member States in order to support them in the transposition.
But it's clear also that in the next months there should be also awareness raising, and the implementation depends also very much on the resources which are put by the Member States on trafficking in human beings. Perhaps to give one example as how we also support Member States, national referral mechanisms, which were also mentioned in the context of the identification of victims, are now mandatory in the context of the new directive. Some Member States have them, some don't have them. Those who have them, it does not necessarily function. But we also supported Member States now in how to develop such national referral mechanisms, to give one of the examples.
The knowing use of services from victims of trafficking is of course one of the big novelties. We know that Member States are transposing this. They, it's minimum rules, so some might go further. One of the difficulties for some Member States is to introduce the services coming from labor exploitation, because some had it for sexual exploitation, but as we know this article applies to all forms of exploitation. And we will hope of course that this will help to reduce the demand.
There I think there needs to be a lot of awareness raising, because this will also help to prevent users from using services of victims. In relation to the gender dimension, I think everything we are going to do on the digital dimension will help also to support women victims of trafficking, because as we also know, sexual exploitation in the new directive is, when it has happened online, is an aggravating circumstance. So, but the focus on women and children will be important. There was a question on cross-border cooperation. I'm sure that Minat will say something on this, but only to recall also that all the Member States have coordinators, and also now to set up national coordinators in the Member States who coordinate the different services is now also mandatory in the directive.
And they also come together in networks, which also helps the cross-border dimension. And the directive foresees the appointment of focal points when there are cases which are transnational, also in order to refer victims to one country to another. I mentioned the link with migration. So everything we are doing also in the context of smuggling will help to address trafficking. Because at the end, if you pay high sums to smugglers, you have often debts which are used by then by traffickers to exploit people.
And that's what I mentioned also in the end of the intervention. The strategy will also be an opportunity to make the link with different initiatives, policy areas, where there are measures which are taken which have also an impact on preventing trafficking. Everything you are doing on legal migration of course will also help to avoid that people are putting themselves on risk. Perhaps a word on surrogacy, exploitation of surrogacy is a new form in the directive, has to be transposed. Surrogacy is not dealt with at EU level.
So I don't think that it will be in the strategy. I stop here.
Speaker 17
Thank you, Ms. Schmidt, and we continue with Ms. Díaz Velázquez, please, you have the floor.
Maria Auxiliadora Díaz Velázquez
Que muchísimas gracias. Que en relación con yo considero que dentro de la propia directiva se debe trasponer cuestiones tan importantes o debe ser objeto de trasposición esta directiva 1712 y la relativa también a la protección de la víctima en la que se incorpore, por supuestísimo, como dice la propia directiva, la maternidad subrogada, los matrimonios forzados y lo que es la adopción ilegal como manifestación de trata de seres humanos, pero que a su vez es la manifestación de víctimas de violencia de género. Pero es que además nos hemos olvidado de una cuestión muy importante que no la he visto. Es decir, si olvidamos a esos niños y niñas de las mujeres que están sometidas a la trata, no se ha tratado nada de ellos. ¿Dónde quedan?
¿En qué marco queda? ¿Qué marco de protección? Yo creo que es importante pararnos en esa cuestión, ¿no? De la misma manera que dotamos de protección a esos niños y niñas que provienen de la violencia de género que cada uno de los países está regulando, debemos ampliar esa protección también a esos niños y niñas que a día de hoy, desde mi punto de vista, son invisibles. Estoy hablando niños y niñas de mujeres que están prostituidas, de mujeres que están siendo explotadas y captadas.
Por un lado. Por en segundo lugar, vuelvo a insistir en un tema que yo creo que con mi experiencia lo he visto en muchísimas ocasiones, señores, si no hay datos, no sabemos qué políticas públicas se pueden adoptar. No sabemos la dimensión del problema. Desde aquí vuelvo otra vez a tender la mano a esa necesidad de crear esos coordinadores, como bien dice la directiva, y de crear un observatorio que sea Europa la primera que cree un observatorio contra la trata de seres humanos con fines de explotación sexual y en las distintas formas de la trata. Yo creo que es importante porque si entre todos los estados recopilamos y hacemos una labor conjunta, llegaremos, por lo tanto, a saber la entidad del problema y el alcance y, por lo tanto, adoptar políticas públicas de forma consciente.
Por otra parte, considero muy importante la visibilización de la trata, ¿no? Todavía se sigue entendiendo, y eso es una cuestión que vivo día a día en los juzgados, es la no concienciación social de que prostitución, de que trata es lo mismo y que todo ello es violencia de género. Entendemos que la violencia de género es aquella del ámbito de la pareja o expareja, ahora la víctima de libertad sexual lo tenemos ahí, pero es que se encuentran mucho más invisibles las víctimas de trata. No se vincula trata con violencia de género. Y yo creo que eso es necesario reforzarlo a través de campañas de concienciación social y también respecto de esos niños y niñas que, repito, que se encuentran hoy en día invisibles.
Por otra parte, y muy importante, desvincular la denuncia del margen de protección. Eso ya lo tienen incorporado en esa directiva y yo creo que es uno de los pilares fundamentales. No podemos depender de que esa víctima nos denuncie y que sea una utilidad probatoria para darle un margen de protección. No, señor, hay que darle protección y después llevar a cabo lo que sea respecto al procedimiento penal. Pero ante todo, la víctima.
Primero la víctima y sus hijos e hijas y después ya la utilidad probatoria que pueda surgir para ese procedimiento judicial y, por supuesto, poner el foco en el tratante. Y lo último ya para decir, no olvidarnos de esa interseccionalidad que hay que incorporarla, pero ante todo, datos. Yo creo que es lo más importante y ante todo que todo gravite alrededor de la víctima, de sus hijos e hijas.
Petya Nestorova
Thank you. I'm not sure which of the many questions were addressed directly to me. I'm absolute sure about one, which was about the interface between trafficking and asylum, so I will focus on this particular question as it was not touched upon by the previous speakers.
And indeed this is a topic to which GRETA has paid a lot of attention over the years, dedicating specific thematic reports on it and also a guidance note on the entitlement of victims of trafficking to international protection. What I can say is that we see a very mixed picture across the European Union member states. In some countries, the majority of identified victims of trafficking come through the asylum system. Ireland is one such country, Finland is another, until some time ago Italy was another country. So in other countries, there's absolutely no identification of victims of trafficking amongst people seeking international protection.
So it's quite interesting to observe these differences. Another big difference is when it comes to how many victims of trafficking are granted international protection. In a number of countries, being a victim of trafficking is seen as a specific ground for international protection. For example, women trafficked for the purpose of sexual exploitation are treated as a particular social group and they're granted asylum on the grounds of having been trafficked, in particular women from Nigeria, there have been many cases. In other countries, no victims of trafficking have been granted international protection, so we have a big divergence of approaches.
Good practices have been identified where guidance is specifically issued to international protection interviewers, officers, how to detect victims of trafficking and how to refer them. In some countries, this is with the involvement of specialized NGOs to ensure the proper detection of indicators. We also see differences when it comes to what happens afterwards, whether the victims are then referred to specialized shelters where they can be assisted and protected, or whether they remain in the general asylum system where they often can be contacted by criminal networks and then exploited. So there could be cases where the vulnerability of asylum seekers who were not trafficked in the first place, but because of being vulnerable, not having access to work, for example, or not having income, they can fall victim to trafficking either for sexual or labor or other forms of exploitation. And maybe a final point here is that there are obviously, we're watching with a lot of attention the impact of the new pact on migration and asylum, to what extent this will be helpful also for the fight against human trafficking.
As you know, when there's very little time to process people, vulnerabilities and indicators of trafficking can be missed. So it's very important to follow this closely.
Marina Kaljurand
Thank you, Ms. Nestorova, and finally I give floor to Mr. Najy, please remain within three minutes.
Nenad Naca
Thank you very much. Regarding the questions that have been asked, let me address the first one, the one that I understood is important: are there links between the human trafficking and migrant smuggling? And the obvious answer is of course there are links when the links exist. Sometimes we have cases of human trafficking without these links. As I mentioned, we have different forms of human trafficking: sexual, labor, forced criminality, organ removal and so on, so not to go in this one.
In some cases, the links are obvious. That's why it's important to have a close cooperation with the teams who are working on the migrant smuggling cases. In some cases, it's less obvious. What I mean by that, in some cases when the victim is traveling from a country where only the trip is dangerous and costs a lot and the average annual income is way below, it's expected this person is going to be in the debt when they come, they need to repay for the services of the criminal networks and that's where we have to work together and be sure that we are going to protect the victim and punish the criminal networks. But apart from that, there are links to every other organized crime.
That's what we always need to remind ourselves. Organized crime doesn't care about any specifics, any of our definitions of what type of the crime is. For them, it's just yesterday business. It's just what they do which brings money.
That's important to know. So we are seeing cases where human trafficking will be connected, linked with the drug trafficking. It will be connected with the drug distribution. It will be connected with burglaries, with the theft, with so many different types. That's what's saying, whenever they have an opportunity, they will have, they will to earn money, they will be involved in this one.
How to increase cooperation, how to be more successful? Information is the power, intelligence. So being working for Europol agency, which is intelligence hub for EU law enforcement, we want more. The more intelligence we have, the more successful we'll be. So that's something which we are constantly improving in our cooperation with the partners, that's answer to another question, and we are constantly receiving more and more of this information, we are constantly being more effective in supporting them.
To be also effective, we need to provide proper message to them when having in every level, in investigation, in prosecution and finally in the sentences, how to deal with the, with these criminal networks. They change, they evolve from this pyramidal structure to cellular. We need to involve academia, we need to involve practitioners, experts to work together and to find the tools how we'll be more. What are the best tools from our side? Joint investigation teams, not only on our side, but in Europe, but also with the source countries.
That's where we can hit them simultaneously on both level. And needless to say, that's my last point, financial investigations. That's, you know, following the money will lead us who are the most important people. Thank you.
Maria Walsh
Thank you all for that first round. We'll now move on to our second round. In for Renew, we have Raquel García Hermida-Vanderwelle.
Raquel García Hermida-Van Der Walle
Thank you, Chair, and thank you both Chairs and the committees for organizing this very important hearing, and I really appreciate all the perspectives from the different speakers. I have two very specific questions. One is to Ms. Schmidt, and that's about the level of protection of sexual and reproductive rights for victims of human trafficking within the European Union. Do you have any information about where we stand, and I mean everywhere in the European Union, because we know that there is trafficking everywhere, but we know that access to sexual and reproductive rights, including safe abortion, is not everywhere legal. So how are countries like, say, Malta or Poland dealing with that at the moment?
And my second question is directed to Señora Díaz and to Mr. Naj, I'm sorry, I, Naj, thank you, about data collection. I hear both of you speak about the importance of having data, and Señora Díaz speaking about a observatory, and from Europol you have more necessity, more needs for better data provision from the Member States so that you can analyze the intel. And I was wondering, do you have ideas on how we could merge both things? Do we need both things, or can we have like one data repository so that we don't duplicate work? Thank you.
Maria Walsh
Thank you very, very much. We have no Green representative, I believe, in the room. No. We'll move on to the Left, so Emma Fourreau.
Emma Fourreau
Mesdames les présidentes, chers collègues, chers intervenantes et intervenants, deux personnes sur trois victimes de la traite des êtres humains en Europe sont des filles et des femmes. Travail forcé, exploitation sexuelle, mariage forcé, les formes que prennent la traite sont multiples mais les conséquences sont toujours les mêmes : violence inouïe, précarisation extrême et destruction des vies.
Dans l'Union européenne, soi-disant continent des droits humains, la traite des êtres humains ne devrait être qu'un douloureux souvenir. Pourtant, chaque année, près de 10 000 personnes sont victimes de la traite d'êtres humains en Europe, et ça, ce sont seulement les chiffres déclarés. Et la situation ne va pas s'améliorer. Le pacte asile et migration et le règlement retour que le PPE a honteusement voté main dans la main avec l'extrême droite ne va faire qu'amplifier ce phénomène. Les rafles et l'intensification des expulsions ne sont en aucun cas une solution humaniste et placeront les exilés, dont les femmes, dans des situations de clandestinité extrême, les poussant dans les bras des trafiquants.
Les refoulements aux frontières ne feront que laisser plus longtemps des personnes, dont de nombreux mineurs, sur des routes migratoires dangereuses et saturées. Des routes migratoires où les risques de traite et viols sont présents partout, même si ces violences sont souvent passées sous silence par les mêmes qui criminalisent les demandeuses et demandeurs d'asile. La directive portée par mon groupe The Left et adoptée au dernier mandat contre la traite des êtres humains a permis des avancées majeures, dont la prise en charge des victimes de la traite, dont la majorité des femmes victimes d'exploitation sexuelle et une meilleure protection pour les victimes de traite migrante. J'ai donc une question pour la Commission : pouvez-vous nous assurer que la mise à jour de la stratégie se fondera sur ces acquis et placera les demandeuses et demandeurs d'asile au cœur de la protection contre la traite afin d'éviter notamment que plus de femmes et de filles en soient victimes ? Ne laissons pas la haine et le racisme qui ont motivé le pacte asile et migration et le règlement retour dicter la stratégie de lutte contre la traite.
Je vous remercie.
Maria Walsh
Uh, thank you very, very much. Now representing ESN, patiently waiting, MEP Borstorf for FEMM and MEP Kahn for LIBE. So I'll decide, you can decide amongst yourselves who wants to go first.
Borstorf
Ja, vielen Dank für das Wort. Ich werde auf Deutsch sprechen. Ich danke Ihnen auch für diesen lebendigen Eindruck in die demokratischen Regeln dieses Parlaments, das ständig neue Regeln erfindet. Und ich habe heute auch viel gelernt. Klimawandel schafft zum Beispiel Anfälligkeit für Menschenhandel, vielleicht können Sie das erklären.
Menschenhandel ist unlauterer Wettbewerb, ich glaube, das haben sich alle von uns vorher gedacht, aber vielleicht können Sie dazu auch was sagen. Dann wurde mehrfach die Intersektionalität erwähnt. Ich weiß nicht, ob es wirklich so viele Opfer von Menschenhandel gibt, wenn wir an Männer in Frauenkleidern denken oder Frauen nach einer Mastektomie, vielleicht können Sie dazu auch noch was sagen. Dann ist der digitale Menschenhandel angesprochen worden, dazu wüsste ich auch gerne etwas. Das ist, Sie haben es gesagt, sobald ein Handy im Spiel ist, ist es digitaler Menschenhandel, nennen Sie mir eine andere Kommunikationsmöglichkeit von Menschen heutzutage.
Und es ist auch der Menschenhandel in Georgien erneut angesprochen worden. Und da bin ich ein bisschen empfindlich, denn der FEMM-Ausschuss war gerade in Georgien, traf sich dort nur mit Oppositionspolitikern. Sie wissen, dass Menschenhandel in der Ukraine eine besonders große Rolle spielt, vor allem wenn wir an das Thema Leihmütter und Kaufbabys denken. Mich hat aber auch sehr gestört, wir haben sehr viel von den Frauen gehört und es wurde andauernd betont, dass zwei Drittel der Opfer Frauen sind, aber ein Drittel der Opfer sind Männer. Zu denen wurde gar nichts gesagt, da wäre ich sehr dankbar, wenn ich dazu noch etwas hören könnte.
Wir haben auch über die Ausbeutung oder über die Kriminalitätsfelder gesprochen und über die sexuelle Ausbeutung, die Arbeitsausbeutung ist dabei ein Feld, das extrem zunimmt, dazu haben Sie leider gar nichts gesagt, auch nicht zu Bettelei, Organhandel und Zwangskriminalität. Und zu den Tätergruppen, meine letzte Anmerkung, es sind überwiegend Täter aus Bulgarien, Rumänien, dem Westbalkan, Albanien und Nigeria, vielleicht gibt's ja eine Erklärung, warum die Täter ausgerechnet aus diesen Ländern kommen. Vielen Dank.
Kahn
Thank you, Chair. I will speak in German just for the translation. Ja, Menschenhandel ist eines der brutalsten Verbrechen unserer Zeit, da stimme ich Ihnen absolut zu. Es geht um Frauen, Kinder, aber auch ganz klar um Männer, die ausgebeutet, verschleppt und verkauft werden. Was mir aber gefehlt hat in dieser ganzen Debatte und auch in diesem neuen Entwurf, ist nun mal auch der Elefant im Raum.
Es geht vor allem darum, dass gerade Menschenhandel seit 2015 neu ummodelliert wurde. 2015 über eine Million Menschen, illegale Migranten, kamen nach Europa und über 90 % kamen über Schleusernetzwerke. Diese Schleusernetzwerke machten zu dieser Zeit einen Profit von knapp 6 Milliarden Euro. Um vor allem der Dame, der Kollegin von den Linken dementsprechend zuzusprechen, dass gerade die Rückführungsverordnung, und deswegen fehlt mir auch gerade die Themenrichtung in diesem Bereich, wird vor allem helfen, gerade diese diesen Schleusernetzwerken das Handwerk zu legen. Denn wenn das Signal vor allem in die Welt hinausgesendet wird, dass nach Rechtsstaatsprinzip abgeschoben wird, es wird millionenfach abgeschoben, es wird auch keine Möglichkeiten mehr geben, illegal einzureisen, nur dann legt man diesen Netzwerken endgültig das Handwerk.
Vielen Dank.
Maria Walsh
Thank you both. Is there anybody else who would like to take the floor that perhaps hasn't indicated for catch the eye? No? What we'll do is we'll go back to our experts who covered an array of topics and bear in mind only had 13 minutes to do it, considering the amount of questions that came at them. Okay.
So we'll start with for 3 minutes of a reply, we'll start with Mrs. Schmidt.
Diane Schmitt
Thank you very much. Perhaps I will start with data. I know that the the question was not directly addressed to me, but as also the idea of an observatory came up, I would like to underline that in the on trafficking in human beings, we have quite a good data collection, which is done every year by Eurostat. Of course, it can be improved and we also work on this. There was recently a study which was done by the anti-trafficking hub.
The anti-trafficking hub was set up by the Commission to help member states with analysis, research and studies in order to improve the situation on specific points where member states need guidance. And data collection is also now mandatory in the context of the directive. So I must say that we are quite advanced. I think the problem is not necessarily the data, of course you have to interpret also what you get as information. The problem is the detection of victims and the identification of victims.
But we have quite good information about the situation and as I said, and which came out also here from the debate, there is a clear link also now stronger link with migration because since 2022 the majority of victims are third country nationals. Some of them are were already before in the European Union as normal migrants and were vulnerable like also normal EU citizens.
We should not forget that 36% of the victims are EU citizens and many also trafficked or victims of trafficking, trafficked within their own country. To come for the, for the, to, to the link with migration, indeed the screening regulation and also the asylum procedure regulation and the reception condition rules foresee specific protection measures for vulnerable people. So this is something we work very closely with the EU Asylum Agency and also with colleagues who are working on the implementation on the pact and with member states in order to ensure that potential victims of trafficking can also be identified in this context. Men were, were mentioned. Indeed, majority of the victims are women, but we have a specific challenge with the men who are often identified in labor exploitation cases.
And when there are labor exploitation cases which are discovered, there are often a high, there is often a high number of potential victims of trafficking and they are often men. And member states do not have the shelters and the capacity to take care of these men immediately. So this is a challenge in many member states and this is probably someone, something one has to look at also. We have also the civil society platform which was renewed recently and we have also now organization there representing specific male victims and including a survivor who is part of our platform. Thank you.
Speaker 24
Sorry, point of order. I asked the Commission a very specific question. I would like an answer to my question.
Maria Walsh
Okay, I'm going to, I'm going to continue on with the rest of the speakers and we'll give Ms. Schmidt time to come back if she wishes, okay?
Maria Auxiliadora Díaz Velázquez
Bueno, pues en relación lo primero y principal una de las cuestiones que se me había olvidado también era el tema de la necesidad de formación especializada. Vale, formación especializada de los operadores jurídicos y concretamente también por supuesto del poder judicial, ¿no? Porque aquí yo creo que está muy bien y creo que es un gran avance el hecho de los datos que se pueden obtener a través de estos organismos internacionales pero yo creo que también esa formación especializada para que después dé resultado en la que pueda conllevar pues a una condena de los, de los tratantes, ¿no? Si observáis, yo por ejemplo puedo poner el caso de España el número de sentencias que son condenatorias en relación con el resto de actos de violencia son minoritarias. Por lo tanto, cuando yo hablo de ese observatorio me estoy refiriendo que no solamente por supuesto que participen los datos de los distintos organismos pero yo creo que es una labor mucho más profunda.
Cada uno de los estados debe determinar cuáles son sus datos. Y esos datos debían ser recopilados por ese observatorio que puede estar integrado por supuestísimo de una manera muy adecuada por parte de esos organismos pero de una manera que sepamos en cada uno de los estados cuántas sentencias condenatorias hay, cuántas sentencias, es decir, han sido absueltas, cuáles son las fisuras de ese sistema, cuántas medidas de protección se han otorgado, etcétera, etcétera. Es decir, incorporar también al poder judicial dentro de este, de este ámbito con la finalidad de determinar también porque yo creo que es un dato muy importante. Porque te das cuenta y yo que llevo más de 25 años en un juzgado de violencia especializada, bueno, 25 en realidad, lo que sí les puedo decir es que es importantísimo porque te das cuenta de la evolución que ha habido en ese sentido y te encuentras con que inicialmente no había sentencias condenatorias a medida de mayor conciencia social ha habido un incremento.
Pero olvidar al poder judicial de este ámbito creo que desde mi punto de vista sería un error porque en realidad al final decimos: hay norma, sí, pero ¿se aplica? ¿Se aplica, se interpreta bien? ¿Conlleva al final y da esa máxima protección o la dejamos por el camino? Es que ese yo creo que es uno de los grandes problemas. Otra cuestión también importante en cuanto a la expulsión de las mujeres que también lo trataron, disculpen que voy muy rápido, me estoy dando cuenta ahora.
Me disculpan. Bueno, decirles eso que lo que les decía que no puede depender de una denuncia, es decir, la situación que les comenté anteriormente de esa chica que ha sido tratada por una situación de loverboy cuando todavía España no había incorporado ese convenio de Estambul, yo lo que hice fue considerarla como víctima de violencia de género de tal manera que ella no tenía que esperar los noventa días para yo dotarla de la máxima protección tanto a ella como a sus hijos. Si la hubiese considerado solo como víctima de trata, hubiese estado supeditado a la necesidad de la denuncia y se hubiese encontrado con la posibilidad de ser expulsada del territorio nacional. Yo la configuré tanto a ella como a su hija como víctima de trata, la doté de protección y no se le y no le causó ningún problema. De hecho se encuentra ya en territorio español trabajando y totalmente incorporada.
Por lo tanto esa visión más amplia sin necesidad de esa denuncia para dotar de protección creo que es otro de los problemas, otra de las de las grandes mejoras, digo, y además con independencia de su estatus administrativo. Vale, es decir, ¿no por qué? Porque aquellas mujeres que están que son más vulnerables, que están mucho más desprotegidas no van a ir al ámbito judicial porque me pueden echar del territorio español y por lo tanto creo que Europa, tal y como ella se basa en esos derechos fundamentales que desde siempre hemos tenido inicialmente, yo creo que lo va a hacer. Y espero que sí, que lo hagamos entre todos y que y que por lo tanto se dote de esa protección a esa mujer y a sus niños con independencia de su estatus administrativo y con independencia de haber interpuesto la denuncia correspondiente. Considerémosla como víctima de violencia de género y no supeditemos al hecho de la denuncia.
Muchas gracias.
Speaker 25
Thank you, thank you very much. We'll now go back online to Mrs. Nesterova.
Petya Nestorova
Yes, thank you. I will focus on two of the issues that were raised: access to reproductive rights, sexual reproductive rights, and the situation of male victims. On the first issue, in fact GRETA has in several countries paid particular attention and even issued recommendations on that because it became obvious that victims of trafficking did not have access to safe and legal abortion. So GRETA has called on the respective national authorities to make sure that they have such access and this is seen in the context of the general right to assistance which includes medical which includes healthcare. So from that that right of victims which is part of the Council of Europe Convention, the conclusion was drawn that this this is part of it.
And then when it comes to the situation of men, Deashmith already touched upon it. I just want to say that they tend to be more invisible because often we have situations where men would not engage or they will not complain, they will be quickly either leave the country or be sent away. But there are, I mean I have personally been to informal settlements in some of the southern countries of the European Union where you have thousands of of people living there working as seasonal workers in agriculture. They are from all over the world, some from Bangladesh, some from Morocco, etc.
And the situation of these people is, is, is really critical. There, there, there have been cases where, where trafficking prosecutions have, have taken place successfully. But this is, this is really something which should not remain a blind spot, because it is very, very much linked to, to what you're discussing today. Thank you.
Nenad Naca
Thank you very much. With regards the question of the databases and how we collect data at Europol, very briefly from our side again, our job is to support investigations in what is most important role for us, task, is to arrest criminals. And by that, we are helping actually the victims, we are helping the society itself. So how do we do it and what I mean when I mention the, the intelligence which is needed for, for all of us to be more successful, I mean about the one which is coming from the law enforcement side, from the agencies. So as this is being decided when Europol has been created by the member states, that Europol will be the one who is going to centralize information, it's been defined in our regulation, that's our main source information.
And it's being shared with us with a specialized encrypted channel of communication which can be used of course for the classified information, which is very important. So what is also very important to highlight here, we are not the owners of the intelligence that is stored with us. It is the countries who are the owners and they are giving us clear instructions how and what we can do with this information. They are handling codes saying to us with whom we can share, they are clear processes when we can share it, dissemination policies, when it can be used in certain processes. So all of those has to be respected in any legal, in any legal procedure as it is done with us.
However, of course, we are receiving informations, information and intelligence from other sources, especially since last change, where even the private parties can share information with Europol, it can be accessed in a cert-, with certain conditions and be used in what is important to find the way how to combat crime. So what I would like to say, whenever there is a lawfully, legally gathered information, it can be shared with Europol and it will find its way to investigations to enrich their intelligence and to, to increase their efficiency. Thank you.
Marina Kaljurand
I'd like to thank all our presenters, experts. I'd like to thank the colleagues who participated in this discussion and I'd also like to thank my co-chair and looking forward to, to the work to come and on behalf of LIBE I can say that with great attention we will follow the work on this important file. Thank you.
Maria Walsh
Thank you very much and then final words for me as a standing chair for FEMM, again to thank the speakers for joining us today, thank the colleagues who asked their questions. Bear in mind as I briefly said, each of our expertise over the collective of an hour and a half only had 30 minutes each to share their expertise. Sometimes I wish we heard more from you, but we will in turn continue to follow your work. And I want to specifically thank all experts for this incredible work on anti-trafficking, valuable points made in prep of this new strategy. And for us as policymakers and our hardworking teams, two dates that were flagged earlier, 15th of July we should see transposition of this, of this directive in each of our member states.
And if we're not, then we need to collectively action, and I'd say that across two of our committees, as well as many others that work here in the house. And the 18th of October, which is EU Anti-Trafficking Day, which we would expect the upcoming Commission strategy to be released. And hopefully between now and then, we have a lot more shared work in that. Thank you to our secretariat and most importantly our interpretation team. And throughout all the shares today, I think of the many survivors and victims of human trafficking and their children who rely on interpreters to share their story and lived experience.
So thank you very much everybody and enjoy your day.
Speaker 26
Trafficking in human beings is a serious crime, often with a cross-border dimension, and a gross violation of fundamental rights. It is also a highly profitable crime for the perpetrators. The European Union has a comprehensive legal and policy framework in place to address trafficking in human beings, with the 2011 Directive being the cornerstone of this framework. However, despite the progress made, trafficking in human beings remains a significant challenge in the European Union. The number of victims remains high, and the methods used by traffickers are constantly evolving, particularly in the digital sphere.
Furthermore, trafficking in human beings is a gendered phenomenon. Women and girls are disproportionately affected by trafficking, particularly for the purpose of sexual exploitation. According to the latest data from the European Commission, 72% of all victims in the EU are women and girls, and 92% of victims of trafficking for sexual exploitation are women and girls. It is therefore crucial to address trafficking in human beings from a gender perspective. This means taking into account the specific needs and vulnerabilities of women and girls, as well as the root causes of trafficking, such as gender inequality, poverty, and discrimination.
The purpose of today's hearing is to assess the implementation of the 2011 Directive from a gender perspective and to identify the challenges and best practices in this area. We have invited a number of experts to share their views and experiences with us.
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