Human Trafficking - The ELDR visit

2.10.28pm BST (GMT +0100) Fri 20th Oct 2006

Whilst at the ELDR Congress last weekend there were two events related to Human Trafficking. Firstly the European Liberal Women Network held a very informative fringe event and then at end of the Congress they organised a trip to a couple of shelters.

The fringe was well attended and we were addressed by Senator Norica Nicolai (Chair of the Romania Liberal Women Organisation), Karin Riis-Jorgenden MEP and Adien McQuade (Director of Anti-Slavery International). Of course the UK Liberal Democrats, led by Liz Lynne MEP, have recently passed a motion at our Conference on this subject and it was very interesting to hear what the other European Liberals thought.

Colin Ross, Phil Bennion and the Romania Shelter's priest

On Saturday we visited two shelter - the Buftea shelter for families and one run by the Orthodox Church. Both were interesting, the Buftea shelter acts mainly as a very short-term location where survivors of trafficking and women and children suffering from domestic violence can go for a few days before being provided with longer-term shelter. The Church was able to offer longer shelter and was equipped with a classroom and computers to help the victims put their lives back on track.

Colin Ross, Phil Bennion and the Civil Servant responsible for Trafficking policy

We were accompanied on the visits by the Minister who had responsibilities for Human Trafficking and a senior Civil Servant. They were equally interested in our views.

One of the biggest problems that we identified was that victims of trafficking found in the UK are deported, rather than treated as victims, and the UK doesn't not inform the original country of the deportation. As a result many of the victims do not get into these shelters be fall into the hands of the traffickers again. I hope to work with Liz Lynne MEP and others to try and ensure we can at least rectify this problem and tackle some of the others.