Speech by Eva Biaudet at the 18th BSPC, Nyborg 2009

Organization for Security and Co-operation in EuropeSpecial Representative and Co-ordinatorfor Combating Trafficking in Human BeingsSpeech of Ms. Eva Biaudet,OSCE Special Representative and Co-ordinator for Combating Trafficking in HumanBeings, at the18th Baltic Sea Parliamentary Conference, Session 3: New Threats to Security, inNyborg on 1 September 2009Excellencies, Ladies and Gentlemen, distinguished participants, dear friends and colleagues,As you all know, various forms of slavery and exploitation have been part of most of humanhistory. In this sense trafficking is not a “new threat”. Instead, it is our understanding of theconcept of security that has widened to include also human security.From this point of view, the OSCE is a "modern" organisation. From its beginning in 1975, ithas adopted a comprehensive security approach where human security and state security areintertwined. Trafficking in human beings threatens both. OSCE as an organisation has been apioneer in working against trafficking. We have a strong mandate from all 56 participatingStates. There has been a Ministerial Council Decision specifically on trafficking every yearsince 2000, which itself highlights the strong political commitment given by thegovernments. But, as you as politicians very well know, this work cannot be outsourced tothe international organisations. Every government needs a systematic strategy and specificefforts to fight this modern-day slavery. I will return to this later in my presentation.Trafficking for sexual exploitation is the most common type of trafficking globally,especially in Europe. Globally, 80% of identified victims had been trafficked for sexualexploitation. The “classical” scenario of traffickers luring girls or young women with falseprospects of love and marriage or simply of a good salary and better life and then forcingthem into prostitution is a reality in our world, including here in the Baltic Sea regionAs an example, let me refer to the Copenhagen Post of July 2 this year:The Western High Court in Århus today increased the guilty sentence of a man andwoman sentenced to prison for keeping two teenage Slovakian girls in their house assex slaves. The case began in March 2008, when a 17-year-old Slovakian girl went tothe police and accused the couple of keeping her in their apartment where men paidthe couple to have sex with her. When police raided the address they found anotherSlovakian girl aged 19 in similar circumstances. The two teens had been promised agood job and better life in Denmark and they willingly came here with the couple.1The girls were forced to having sex with up to eight men a day and earned at least200,000 kroner for the Århus couple. The 17-year-old became pregnant as a result.I think if we all for a moment paused to concretely think about what these girls haveexperienced, no-one could remain unengaged. Victims are beaten, raped, locked up ininhuman conditions without food, water and sanitation, they are threatened and tortured. Allto keep them under the complete control of the trafficker.Victims of trafficking indeed show similar symptoms of trauma as victims of torture. Theyare so traumatised they cannot remember what happened to them. New research shows thatthey may need up to six months of recovery and support before they are able to be helpful inpolice investigations or share anything of what they have gone through. For child victims it iseven more serious: a recent study from the UK showed it can last over 18 months before achild starts to talk about the trafficking experience. This is the case even in situations with achild protection professional who is actively trying to help the child. This is essentialinformation for both law enforcement and social workers to understand for them to becomemore successful in helping the victims and solving the crime.Women’s commodification through trafficking is facilitated if local custom and law treatwomen as property, but it is also facilitated by the global sex industry, which normalizesexploitation of people, mostly women and children. The Nordic and UK model of addressingdemand through legislation is a promising practice to oppose this line of thinking and to limitexploitation. Quite often I hear that the exploitation of human beings in the sex market orlabour market is a fact of life and that it cannot be changed. People tell me we should justfocus on harm reduction and stopping the most serious forms of organised crime. To me thisis very cynical and disregards the protection of every person's human rights and freedoms.Ladies and Gentlemen,We have all heard about cases where foreign workers have not been paid and have beenexploited in inhuman working and living conditions. Let me again refer to a case reported inthe media, on the website of NRK, the Norwegian TV. A couple organised work in Norwayfor a woman from Sri Lanka. The couple kept her salary and she was prevented from leavingthe couple's home after working hours while being forced to work as a domestic servant. Thewoman was constantly threatened and was not paid for any of her work. This case is nowbeing investigated as the first case of domestic slavery to be tried in a Norwegian court.There are many other examples of labour exploitation in factories or restaurants, inconstruction or domestic work, in open-air markets and for agricultural labour, such aspicking fruit or vegetables, or even wild forest berries, as is the case in many Nordiccountries.My office recently organized a seminar on trafficking for forced labour in the agriculturalsector with experts and participants from most OSCE participating States. Our seminar wasbased on a groundbreaking study on Human Trafficking for Labour Exploitation in theAgricultural Sector. The seminar showed that in-country domestic trafficking for forcedlabour in the agricultural sector does indeed exist in the OSCE region, and that slavery andtrafficking do not exist in a vacuum. In fact, overall poor working conditions provide agrowing ground for slavery-like practices and trafficking. This is why labour protection and2labour inspection also in secluded sectors of labour is particularly important. If exploitation istolerated and facilitated, there will always be trafficking.Migration is and will be necessary, and can be very positive for societies and empowering forthe migrating individual. Nevertheless, it is necessary to remind ourselves that, for instance,the lack of knowledge of language and of society's structures, economic distress, and lowlevel of education, can put people at risk of exploitation. We need therefore to put migrantempowering functions in place to prevent exploitation – in the worst case slavery – fromhappening.On my country visits I have again and again encountered the phenomenon of hundreds, oreven thousands, of missing children, now also documented in various reports. "Europe's lostchildren", the disappearing of unaccompanied minor asylum seekers is a serious and growinghuman rights violation and a trafficking threat. According to a report by the EU FundamentalRights Agency, the problem is documented in many EU countries, including in Ireland, theCzech Republic, the Netherland, Sweden, the UK and Denmark. It is likely that many ofthese children are victims of human trafficking. We believe traffickers use the asylum centresas “holding places” for trafficked children and pick them up, often within 24 hours, and thenput them in prostitution, street begging, petty crime, and domestic slavery.The modus operandi of traffickers is illustrated by a Dutch (“Koolvis”) case as recentlyreported by the Dutch National Rapporteur on Trafficking in Human Beings. About 30female unaccompanied Nigerian minor asylum seekers disappeared from reception centres inthe Netherlands between 2005 and 2006. In a large investigation it was found out that theNetherlands was used by Nigerian criminal organisations as a transit country for traffickinginto Italy and Spain. Nigerian girls were recruited in Nigeria and were promised a job inEurope – some were told they would have to engage in prostitution – but they all had topromise to repay the travel costs to the traffickers (amounting to 30,000-50,000€ ). Tostrengthen the deal, the girls had to swear an oath in front of a voodoo priest. They girlsarrived in the Netherlands by plane and immediately threw away all their travel and identitydocuments so that they could not be identified and their travel not traced. Next they reportedthemselves to the Dutch authorities at the airport and applied for asylum in order to get atemporary residence permit. Some of the girls also claimed they were victims of trafficking,in order to qualify for the special protection measures in place for victims of humantrafficking. Once the girls were placed in asylum centres or shelters, they called a numbergiven to them by the traffickers, and were then collected from the shelter by the traffickers.They then were put in prostitution, in the Netherlands, Spain or Italy. The Netherlandsengaged in a large international investigation, and managed to arrest several of thesetraffickers. Preventative measures were also put in place both at the country of origin anddestination and as a result, there are almost no cases anymore of Nigerian unaccompaniedminors arriving by plane to the Netherlands.Also in Norway the authorities were able to put a stop to a similar child trafficking pattern byimmediately putting the children in protective compulsory custody so that the traffickerscould no reach them and to protect the children from running away into the hands of thetraffickers. When the traffickers lost their means of income, they changed routes, avoidingNorway.3Ladies and gentlemen,We stand in front of a whole lot of new threats. Organised crime is taking new forms andtheir various illegal activities, corruption, terrorism and even the business around pirated CDsand DVDs, can be linked to trafficking in human beings. At the same time, economicinequalities and the widening gap between the rich and the poor are exacerbated by theeconomic crisis, with growing migration flows, often irregular and rising, putting people atincreased risk of different kinds of exploitation. In many parts of the world there exists a vastreservoir of people with no sustainable income or livelihood. The mere scale of numbers,lack of options and awareness ensures there will always be plenty of potential victims,despite all our awareness-raising and prevention efforts. A perfect market for traffickers iscreated when a growing demand for ever cheaper labour is combined with little respect forthe human dignity of desperate people in need.It was very interesting yesterday to hear the presentation of the BSPC Working Group on thelabour market and social welfare. The good experiences of cross-border commuters couldalso be used in a broader context of migration. However, it would be useful if migrationinformation offices also incorporated human trafficking information to potential migrants,such as check-up of future employers, working conditions, reporting of experiences, andinformation where to find help in case of abuse.The fight against trafficking in human beings threatens personal security, social coherenceand our human values. I am very pleased to hear that there is a suggestion for new workinggroup on human security within the BSPC. I think it would be useful if the working groupcould look for concrete measures and tools to improve the effectiveness of our fight againsttrafficking in this particular region. Some questions to examine could be, for instance:Firstly, how to create systematic strategies and structures to make the fight against traffickingmore effective and how to enable these structures to function in regional dialogue. I believewe need to become better at self-monitoring our efforts and assessing their success. We needaccountability in order to ensure that what we do is effective, reaches the aimed target, andthat when that we scale up, we do it in the best possible way. That is why I am advocating forthe National Rapporteur or equivalent mechanism, recommended by the OSCE participatingStates for many years. The establishment of a National Rapporteur or equivalent mechanismwill also at the same time support and facilitate the international monitoring function of theCouncil of Europe that is being started. I have brought with me copies of my Annual Reportof last year, which analyses how countries use the basic working tools OSCE recommendsfor countries to use: National Action Plans, National Coordinators and the NationalRapporteurs.Secondly, how to improve victim support and international cooperation to assist victims. Notjust in terms of policing and judicial cooperation, but also how to cooperate to provide socialsupport and victim assistance at the local level. The role of NGOs has proven to be crucial.Support must be based on victims' needs, and be swift, as the trauma may become worse ifassistance is delayed.Thirdly, how to create particular measures, structures and actions to prevent child traffickingand assist child victims, ensuring the best interest of the child. It is urgent to create capacityto stop the disappearance of trafficked children.4Fourthly, how to strengthen action of prevention through creating a hostile environment fortraffickers and empowering vulnerable populations. It is necessary to address also the long-term factors that facilitate trafficking: i.e. vulnerability in different forms; discrimination be itgendered or of ethnic origin; economic inequalities; exploitative environments, and;corruption and organised crime.My Office is organising a conference on prevention on 14-15 September in Vienna. Weintend to look at current efforts and gaps to prevent human trafficking. I warmly welcome allof you to participate in the conference.To conclude,Respect for human dignity, equality and social responsibility are worth fighting for.Trafficking erodes these basic values. When trafficking occurs it is always a failure ofsociety. When the failure is due to a lack of effective counter-trafficking measures, thegovernment bears the responsibility. The victim must never be blamed.The Baltic Sea region is a specific region with good opportunities to together fight thismodern-day slavery of trafficking. You as parliamentarians are in a key position to placetrafficking high on the political agenda. Please do.Thank you.5