EU governments must back MEP lead for trafficking hotline

3.08.00pm GMT Tue 11th Sep 2007

The European Parliament's civil liberties committee has voted to put €2 million (£1.4 million) into the EU budget for 2008, to establish an EU-wide hotline for trafficking victims. The amendment was co-authored by Liberal Democrat European justice spokeswoman and London Euro-MP Baroness Sarah Ludford.

One common telephone number across all EU Member States would provide an easy point of contact and support for such victims. The money would pay for the operational infrastructure and the training of qualified staff, probably from NGOs, to respond to calls; finance publicity for the hotline; fund the provision of protection, psychological assistance, health care and legal advice to victims; and support cooperation among local, national and pan-European bodies involved in fighting trafficking.

Sarah Ludford said:

"Too often, those who have been trafficked are seen as suspicious illegal immigrants and chucked out of the country, but they are exploited victims of major crime, so they must be properly treated as such. Shamefully shabby treatment only compounds the terrible suffering endured at the hands of their traffickers."

"It is important to establish a single anti-trafficking helpline for the whole of the EU, because a single pan-European number can be publicised easily would thus be accessible to people throughout Europe who find that they have been trafficked."

"With estimates suggesting around half a million mainly women and children are trafficked into Europe every year, many of them as sex slaves, there are a lot of people at risk who could be helped to escape."

"Once the whole European Parliament has backed this initiative, as I am confident they will, it will be up to EU governments to agree with MEPs to finance this essential tool in the fight against abhorrent modern slavery."