[Brussels, 24 May 2017] 66 civil society organisations wrote today to the EU Commissioner for Migration, Home Affairs and Citizenship, Mr Avramopoulos, to call for the post-2016 EU Strategy on trafficking to be presented in the coming weeks.
In April 2016, the European Commission issued a consultation, asking civil society organisations and other actors to share their views on the content for a post-2016 EU Strategy on trafficking in human beings, with the aim to present the post-2016 Strategy by the end of 2016. The EWL and its members and partners, many of them being members of the EU Civil Society Platform, came together to produce a
joint contribution with concrete proposals for the new strategy.
A post-2016 Strategy has been requested in several Commission’s documents and policies (like the European Agenda on Security, the European Agenda on Migration, the Communications on managing the refugee crisis) and in several resolutions of the European Parliament (in May 2016 on the implementation of the Directive from a gender perspective, in July 2016 on the fight against trafficking in human beings in the EU’s external relations). The existence of the 2012-2016 Strategy has been instrumental to support the EC and the EU Anti-Trafficking Coordinator in the development of the EU action against all forms of trafficking. Many EWL members and partners are working directly with women and girls victims of sex trafficking and prostitution, and therefore welcomed the recognition of the gender dimension of trafficking in the Directive. Through the guidance given by the Strategy, the EC has been able to give visibility to this gender dimension, which impacts on the lives of millions of women and girls.
However, the post-2016 Strategy has not yet been presented. As the EWL and its partners and members are about to gather at the 9th meeting of the EU Civil Society Platform on trafficking in human beings, we expect that a post-2016 Strategy will be adopted in the coming weeks to ensure the continuity of the EC work and the political leadership of the EU in this field.
Mr Avramopoulos stated in a plenary session of the European Parliament on 3 April 2017: “Now that the 2012-2016 Strategy has come to an end, the time has come to step up our efforts and continue delivering more intensively and in a more focused way”. We therefore count on his leadership and commitment to transform these words into action, and present this year the new EU Strategy towards the eradication of trafficking in human beings.
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