2011-06-28 Maria was only 13 when she was sold by her family to an unknown man and was raped and abused. She managed to escape and was sent back home only to be sold again and abused as a sex slave in Italy and the UK. She was forced to have sex with 65-70 men a day, every day during five years before she managed to escape again.
Maria is only one, out of what is estimated to be, several hundred thousand women, men and children being victims to trafficking living in Europe today. These crimes are not acceptable under any circumstances.
Today I received petitions from more than 2,3 million Europeans calling for an end to sex trafficking. Not only is it a very important awareness raising campaign by ECPAT and the Body Shop it is also a good example on how companies and civil society can work together. It also states the fact that it is not an acceptable that this slavery exists in Europe today, in the 21st century. We must do everything possible to stop the people responsible for these acts.
Early this year we managed to get an anti-trafficking Directive adopted by all three EU institutions, with a joint definition of trafficking in human beings, a harmonization and tougher penalties for this crime and better protection of the victims in all EU countries. Just before Christmas I also appointed an anti-trafficking coordinator to better coordinate all aspects of our anti-trafficking policies. But more needs to be done and we are currently working on further strengthening the EU cooperation in the fight against trafficking.
Yesterday the US State Department also published the Trafficking in Persons Report 2011. It assesses 184 governments around the world on their efforts to combat trafficking in persons. The report provides interesting reading and it also confirms that we have a lot more to do in the EU.
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