MEPs get tough on human trafficking

Committees to vote on updating EU rules.

MEPS are today (2 September) expected to give their backing to tougher EU action to tackle human trafficking. A special joint meeting of MEPs from the committees on civil liberties, justice and home affairs and on women’s rights will vote on proposals to update EU rules which date from 2002 and 2004. 

Edit Bauer, a Slovak centre-right MEP, and Anna Hedh, a centre-left MEP from Sweden, have drafted a legislative proposal that goes further than the text from the European Commission that won the support of member states in June.

Arguing that this “modern form of slavery” has left thousands of vulnerable women and children at the mercy of trafficking gangs, the MEPs urge a broader definition of trafficking, so that forced begging is included as an act of exploitation alongside forced labour and prostitution.

Hedh and Bauer also want tougher penalties for those found guilty of trafficking – jail terms of between six and 12 years, instead of the Commission suggestion of between five and ten years.

They also recommend seizing assets and profits from convicted traffickers, and using the proceeds to support victims.

Compromise agreement

The text adopted by MEPs will form the basis of negotiations with the Council of Ministers, in a bid to reach a final compromise agreement on the new rules. A full plenary vote in the European Parliament is planned for November.

Today’s joint committee meeting will also review a proposal to set up an EU-wide protection order, intended to protect victims of domestic violence.

MEPs are going ahead with their own draft despite a legal dispute between the Commission and the Council of Ministers, which clashed in June over the legal basis of the plan.

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