Anti-Slavery Activists Urge the EU to Combat Human Trafficking (Press Release)

Anti-Slavery Activists Urge the EU to Combat Human Trafficking

BOSTON, MA — The American Anti-Slavery Group is deeply troubled that the European Union is not devoting adequate resources to fight trafficking in Bosnia-Herzegovina. The country is a primary destination for trafficked victims from Eastern Europe, and thousands of women and children end up as sex slaves in Bosnia-Herzegovina every year. Since taking over the responsibility of policing and curbing trafficking in the fragile state in January 2003, the EU has scaled back resources dedicated to anti-trafficking from previous United Nations levels.

Dr. Charles Jacobs, president of the American Anti-Slavery Group, stated: "By reducing already-scarce resources dedicated to anti-trafficking, the problem will only worsen."

Before transferring power to the European Union, the United Nations Mission in Bosnia and Herzegovina (UNMIBH) was charged with policing and curbing trafficking in Bosnia after the Balkan Wars. Although the UNMIGH was unable to curb trafficking with its resources, the EU has cut the number of people working on anti-trafficking activities to five hundred, one thousand fewer than had been working for the UN, and closed the only department designated to stop sex slavery.

"I urge European Union member states to pressure the EU leadership to increase its efforts against trafficking. The human rights community, who has fought so hard in this last decade to abolish modern-day slavery, cannot stand by idly while thousands of women and children continue to be held as sex slaves in Bosnia-Herzegovina," says Dr. Jacobs.

The American Anti-Slavery Group calls on the European Union to use its power to:

Open a department solely devoted to ending sex slavery, similar to the previous UN office;
Increase the number of EU police forces and provide them with specialized training to deal with trafficking and sex slavery;
Enforce the international and local laws that already exist by increasing the number of raids on brothels and trafficking rings. Prosecute trafficking rings, brothel owners, and local and international police that are aiding traffickers or using brothels;
Train prosecutors under the Administration of Justice. Make provisions for witness protection of victims.

Founded in 1994, the American Anti-Slavery Group (AASG) is America's leading human rights organization combating modern-day slavery worldwide. Based in Boston, the historic center of the American abolitionist movement, AASG works to extend the wave of emancipation to the 27 million people trapped in slavery today.