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Opinion of the Experts Group on Trafficking in Human Beings of the European Commission on the Green Paper on an EU Approach to Managing Economic Migration presented by the Commission

Document number
1046
Date
2005
Title
Opinion of the Experts Group on Trafficking in Human Beings of the European Commission on the Green Paper on an EU Approach to Managing Economic Migration presented by the Commission
Author/publisher
Experts Group on Trafficking in Human Beings, European Commission, European Union (EU)
Availability
View/save PDF version of this document
Document type(s)
EU law, Research/Study/Analysis,
Keywords
Brussels, 11.1.2005 COM (2004) 811 final, the Hague Programme, Treaty on European Union, European Commission’s Communication on Tampere, Comprehensive approach to migration; Migration management; Free movement, Migrant rights; Economic migration; Migration policy; European Union, Justice and Home Affairs, Irregular migration, Labour migration,
Summary
Member States should promote regular and managed migration policies, based on demand and need, including the demand for unskilled labour, which are gender sensitive and imply the establishment of clear and comprehensive laws and administrative arrangements [...]. Moreover, Member States should provide a standard based approach to trafficking in human beings, smuggling of migrants and migration, the Expert Group demands, amongst others, the ratification and implementation of the 1990 UN Convention on the Protection of the Rights of all Migrant Workers and their Families and ILO Convention No. 29 on forced labour and Convention 182 on the worst forms of child labour. Further, the EU should promote the regulation of travel/employment/au pair agencies; the provisions criminalizing the retention of passports, visa, work permits or other documents by persons other than the document holder; Visas or work permits should not be linked to a specific employer or type of employment; Education, information and promotion about safe migration possibilities and practices; Gender sensitiveness, in order to address the unequal position with regard to information on migration and access to established migration routes and networks of women. Women are more vulnerable to trafficking as many of the sectors to which they traditionally are relegated - for example the sex sector and domestic labour – are less likely to be regulated and thus more vulnerable for trafficking and the related forced labour and slavery like practices. [...] Member States should encourage a pro-active regulating and monitoring of vulnerable sectors such as construction, sweat shops, agriculture, domestic labour and the sex industry by multiagency groups. This would counter-act the invisibility of exploitation. Member States should proactively cooperate with countries of origin in order to improve the living conditions of potential migrants e.g. by increasing their development aid. To this end an improved cooperation between stakeholders responsible for the migration sector and the development sector should be implemented.
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