EU Statement at Fourteenth session of the UNTOC Working Group on Trafficking in Persons, 8 July 2024

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EU Statement at Fourteenth session of the UNTOC Working Group on Trafficking in Persons, 8 July 2024

08.07.2024 Press and information team of the Delegation to UN and OSCE in Vienna

Chair,

I have the honour to speak on behalf of the European Union and its Member States.

Child trafficking is rapidly evolving and multi-faceted form of trafficking in human beings, which is a severe form of human exploitation, violence against children, child abuse and violation of children's rights. It alsorepresents a major societal problem leaving victims exposed to short- and long-term physical, mental, psychological, and other severe development problems.

This phenomenon is a heinous form of often organised crime, which steadily evolves and becomes increasingly sophisticated and violent.

15% of all victims of trafficking within the European Union are children, and it is alarming that a high number of them remains undetected. Therefore, data collection about child victims, with segregated data for unaccompanied children, including presumed victims needs to be significantly improved.

Children in the EU are trafficked for all forms of exploitation, mainly sexual exploitation and exploitation of criminal activities, but also for forced begging, forced marriage and labour exploitation.

Digitalization, in particular the use of social media has led to a worrying increase in cases of sexual exploitation of minors. In many cases, these are children, who are active on social networks and are specifically groomed by the traffickers using a full range of deceit, threats and duress.

The increased vulnerability, of children who live in institutions or unaccompanied minors, for human trafficking, must be recognised. National child protection systems should especially address the threat of trafficking of those children.

The revised EU Anti-Trafficking Directive adopted on 13 June 2024 reinforces the victim centred and child sensitive approach and emphasises the protection of children.

The Directive adds the exploitation of surrogacy, of forced marriage and of illegal adoption to the existing forms of exploitation. It also includes a new aggravating circumstance when it relates to sexual exploitation to take into account the amplifying effects of the dissemination of exploitative material, such as the dissemination of pictures of sexual nature showing victims.

Moreover, knowingly using services provided by victims of trafficking becomes a criminal offence. The revised Directive pays also specific attention to children in residential or closed institutions and encourages Member States to ensure that national child protection systems develop specific plans to prevent human trafficking.

In addition, close and effective operational cooperation between law enforcement, border protection and judicial authorities is key in targeting those who exploit the most vulnerable and in reducing the number of victims of human trafficking, as well as in detecting, rescuing and protecting more victims. The latest massive operation 'GLOBAL CHAIN', involving 39 countries worldwide, Europol, Frontex and INTERPOL, resulted in the identification of over 1 374 victims, including 153 children, and the arrest of 219 persons .

Society is responsible as a whole for protecting children from human trafficking, online or offline. Therefore, better coordination and cooperation across sectors and actors, such as law enforcement and judicial authorities, social care, education or health sectors, and online service providers are fundamental to combat child trafficking. Moreover, In line with the Directive already mentioned, the, Member States are required to put in place national coordinators, who will work closely with the EU Anti-Trafficking Coordinator.

As a recommendation to this Working Group, we would like to underline that when children are forced, manipulated or lured to commit crimes or misdemeanours as victims of trafficking in human beings, States/parties should take the necessary measures to raise awareness, to prevent forced criminality, to protect the victims and to ensure that the principle of non-prosecution or non-application of penalties is applied, where appropriate.

Finally, I would like to reiterate, that the EU continues supporting a number of projects implemented by UNODC, notably the GLO.ACT programme, and remains committed to use a range of foreign policy instruments and operational cooperation to help combat child trafficking in partner countries, including through dedicated human rights and security dialogues.

Joining our forces in the fight against child trafficking is essential. We therefore appreciate and support the fruitful cooperation in the area of countering trafficking in human beings between UNODC and the EU and all countries represented in this session.

Thank you.