Archive : Europe

Assembly parties have united to tackle human trafficking in Northern Ireland. An all-party group has been set up to combat trafficking for sexual and labour exploitation. Adults and children are also known to be trafficked for criminal activity including illegal drug production, fraud and theft.

Police in southern Italy on Tuesday arrested seven people trafficking suspects of Egyptian and Tunisian nationality. Police said the arrests came amid six-month probe that uncovered an international people-smuggling ring based in Egypt with cells across Italy. The alleged ring had cells operating in Italy's southern regions of Puglia – where police made Tuesday's arrests – in Campania and Sicily as well as in the northern Lombardy region surrounding Milan.

Authorities need to strengthen the rule of law to fight human trafficking, participants said May 14 at the beginning of a three-day OSCE conference. “Strategies … to combat human trafficking will only be successful if they are governed by the principles of rule of law and centred on the protection of the rights of the victims to access justice and regain their human dignity," said Ambassador Janez Lenarcic, director of the OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights, said in an OSCE statement.

The case has been labelled as Sweden’s biggest human smuggling case, and at least four other men were involved, each of whom were jailed as well for aggravated pimping. The eleven women at the centre of the case, all from Romania, were brought to Sweden by the two 45-year-old men in charge of the ring, and who were also responsible for controlling the work of the prostitutes while in Sweden.

A man who attempted to abduct a teenage girl in the Midlands intended to sexually assault her, Mullingar Circuit Court has heard. Sentencing began today in the case of Dermot Murphy (42), Atlantic Coast Apartments, Tramore, Co Waterford, who admitted attempting to abduct a 13-year-old girl last July, intending to sexually assault her.

By partnering with law enforcement agencies, the Catholic Church and other organizations can help victims identify human traffickers and bring them to justice. "The Catholic Church has a huge role to play with 1.1 billion Catholics across the world. With their networks they can make (society) hostile to traffickers and be safe havens for victims," said a young British woman who was tricked into prostitution in Italy. The woman, who goes by the pseudonym Sophie Hayes for her protection, was one of a number of speakers at a Vatican conference on combating human trafficking May 8.

A British court on Tuesday convicted nine men of Asian-origin for raping under-age English girls and sex trafficking in Liverpool. All the victims were vulnerable teenagers from broken homes and spent most of their time smoking, drinking and hanging around. Prosecuting lawyer Rachel Smith described them as "the sort of children who were easy to identify, target and exploit for the sexual gratification".

They’re lured abroad by visions of prosperity, by hopes for a better future for their kids and families back home. Sometimes, they’re trying to escape war or conflict. They are the some 12 million people around the world today who are believed to have become slaves for those dreams of a better, safer life. But their number could be even double that – as many as 27 million men, women and children to live in a state of modern slavery.

It’s the second most profitable worldwide criminal enterprise after the illegal arms trade. We’re talking about human trafficking where men, women and children are bought and sold into slavery every day, whether for the sex trade, domestic servitude or forced labour. So how can the Catholic Church use its global networks to help fight the scourge of human trafficking? That’s one of the key aims behind a conference on combating human trafficking that was being hosted on Tuesday by the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace.

In 2007, 23-year-old Cheryl was working in a hospital in southern Nigeria. A patient’s brother told her that she could make more money in a European hospital if she went with him. Upon arriving in Italy, she quickly learned that she had been tricked into sex work. “It was very dangerous. The first day I went in the night, three men attacked me,” she says. “When they said they want to sleep with me, three of them at a time, I said ‘no,’ I cannot allow the three of you … at [one] time. They brought out money, I said ‘no.’