Legal Responses to Trafficking in Women for Sexual Exploitation in the European Union
Heli Askola - Hart, 2007
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The phenomenon of trafficking in women for
sexual exploitation, which in the last decade has changed from a marginal
'non-issue' to a legitimate concern in many parts of the world, has become
familiar through newspaper coverage. Now, finally, legislators and law
enforcement agencies have begun to act. In Europe, many EU Member States now
have, or are developing, at least some sort of anti-trafficking policies, with
some of States in the forefront of global anti-trafficking efforts. Moreover,
the EU itself has become markedly more active with regard to curbing trafficking
in human beings as part of its migration control and police and judicial
co-operation functions under the current Third Pillar. However, even coordinated
efforts, such as those being worked on by the EU, tend to produce only
short-term cures to a problem that is in truth global and structural in nature
and which cannot be eradicated, or necessarily even significantly reduced,
through policing and migration control measures alone. Too often there is little
debate on broader measures which might be targeted to address the root causes of
trafficking, such as poverty, under-development, general lack of economic and
migration opportunities, and above all, gender inequality. Against this
background, this book deals with present efforts to control trafficking in women
for sexual exploitation. In doing so it examines claims that what is needed to
effectively prevent and tackle trafficking is a comprehensive approach, and, at
the very least, one that is far more wide-ranging and coherent than what exists
today. The book also questions the assertion that destination countries, and
more specifically Member States of the EU, could, and perhaps should, take more
action against trafficking through regional co-operation, particularly in the
framework of the EU, rather than as individual Member States. The book will be
of interest to a wide range of scholars in EU law, human rights, comparative
law, sociology, feminist theory, and politics, as well as policy-makers,
practitioners, and NGO activists in various European countries.
