ECPAT Belgium was extremely honoured to meet with the Vice President of the European Parliament, Ms Sylvie Guillaume, in order to present the findings of the ReACT project.
Ms Guillaume was very interested by the outcomes of the project and has disseminated them through her website. Many possibilities have been discussed to better identify and protect children presumed to be victims of trafficking.
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In the framework of the ReACT project, ECPAT Belgium attended a training of trainers in Leiden (Netherlands) on child trafficking. This event gathered various professionals (guardians, lawyers, police officers, representatives of NGO’s, etc) from five countries (Belgium, France, Germany, The Netherlands, the United Kingdom). The purpose of such initiative was to reinforce the capacity of participants to better identify and protect children victims of trafficking, as well as exchange good practices and experiences.
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Eurostat published the 2015 edition of the report on statistics on human trafficking in the European Union, covering the period 2010-2012. Where do the identified victims of trafficking come from? And the traffickers? What form of exploitation are the most common? 19% of identified victims are children. 55% of identified victims are under 24 and 69% are sexually exploited. Belgium is no exception, being in the top five of the EU countries where the traffickers come from.
These figures show the urgent need of better protection for children against trafficking. At the occasion of the EU Anti-trafficking day (18th of October), the Council of Europe recalled that governments must act to prevent and combat child trafficking.
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