IOM today welcomed the launch of the European Commission's
2012-2016 EU Strategy to Eradicate Trafficking in Human Beings.

“IOM fully backs the five key priority areas identified in
the EU strategy and will actively cooperate with the EU
Institutions and Member States in working to implement the measures
defined in the strategy towards the eradication of trafficking in
human beings,” said IOM Director General William Lacy
Swing.

 

The EU strategy, which covers the period 2012-2016, prioritises
identifying and assisting victims of trafficking, increasing the
prosecution of traffickers, enhancing cooperation with key actors
and organizations in the fight against trafficking, increasing the
knowledge base on all aspects of the issue, and stepping up
prevention measures.     

“IOM especially welcomes the Commission’s continued
dedication to a victim-centered and human rights based approach. In
line with this, we will continue to engage our resources and
expertise in service to the individual men, women and child victims
or potential victims of trafficking, re-trafficking and
exploitation,” said IOM Regional Director for Europe Bernd
Hemingway.   

IOM has been working globally since 1994 to prevent and combat
trafficking in human beings. It has implemented more than 800
counter-trafficking projects in over 100 countries and in 2011
alone, had 241 active projects. Of a global total of 5,498 IOM
counter trafficking interventions in 2011, 1,606 were in
Europe.  

It protects and assists vulnerable migrants (including children)
who have been trafficked, re-trafficked, exploited or abused by
providing direct assistance to victims.

It also addresses the demand for goods and services provided by
victims of trafficking and works with the private sector to ensure
that suppliers adhere to ethical standards and protect migrant
workers from abuse and exploitation. 

The EU Strategy makes specific reference to IOM's “Buy
Responsibly” information campaign, which urges consumers to
play a greater role in ending human trafficking ( "paragraph-link-no-underline" href="http://www.buyresponsibly.org/"
target="_blank">www.buyresponsibly.org). Developed with Saatchi
& Saatchi Simko in Geneva, it aims to change consumer behavior
and asks: “What Lies Behind the Things We Buy?”

 

The global scale of human trafficking is difficult to quantify, but
organized criminal groups are known to be earning billions of
dollars in profits from exploiting their victims.

In promoting evidence-based responses to the problem, IOM also
conducts quantitative and qualitative research to combat
trafficking in human beings, including research on human
trafficking routes and trends, the causes and consequences of human
trafficking both for the individual trafficked person and for
society, as well as the structures, motivations and modus operandi
of organized criminal groups.

While much of this work has been done at national level, IOM
also collects and analyzes global data on human trafficking to
better support cooperation between States to combat cross-border
trade in human beings. This information is stored in IOM's Human
Trafficking Database, which contains primary data on more than
25,000 trafficked persons assisted by the Organization since
1997.

For more information, please contact

Linda Eriksson Baca

IOM Brussels

Tel. +32 2 287 71 13

Email: "mailto:leriksson@iom.int">leriksson@iom.int