Combating Trafficking by Protecting Migrants' Human Rights: La Strada Statement on the Occasion of the 2nd EU Anti-Trafficking Day, 18 October 2008
- Document number
- 1754
- Date
- 2008
- Title
- Combating Trafficking by Protecting Migrants' Human Rights: La Strada Statement on the Occasion of the 2nd EU Anti-Trafficking Day, 18 October 2008
- Author/publisher
- La Strada network
- Availability
- View/save PDF version of this document
- Document type(s)
- Guidelines/Recommendations,
- Keywords
- Migration - Trafficking nexus, Labour migration, Economic migration, Migration management, EU Returns Directive, Undocumented migrants, Irregular migration,
- Summary
- La Strada International, a network of nine independent human rights organisations active in the field of counter-trafficking in Europe, welcomes this second EU anti-trafficking day, which will again focus the public’s and policy-makers’ attention on this severe form of a human rights violation. Last year, the theme of the anti-trafficking day was ‘time for action’. This year we think it is time for reflection.Over the past few years, and after active lobbying by support groups and civil society organisations, there have been advances in the Member States’ and the EU approach to trafficking towards a human rights-based approach. However, the movement towards a rights-based approach to the prevention of human trafficking and the protection of the rights of trafficked persons has unfortunately not been mirrored in the area of migration management as a whole. In particular, irregular migration and related undocumented forms of labour are still viewed, and consequently treated, as a crime issue, rather than the result of political, economic and social imbalances and insufficient human rights protection. Indeed, the proclaimed wish to combat trafficking is often used as an argument for increasing restrictive measures against migrants through a rigid visa policy, border control or obstruction of family reunification. However, restrictive policies contradict their proclaimed purpose, as they create situations in which human rights violations are most likely to occur: Both irregular migration and undocumented work create precarious working conditions that allow extreme forms of exploitation to take place, in turn creating the necessary conditions for trafficking. [...]
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