Legal responses to trafficking in women for sexual exploitation in the European Union : towards a comprehensive approach?

Abstract

The phenomenon of trafficking in women for sexual exploitation, which in the last decade has changed from a marginal 'non-issue' to a legitimate concern in many parts of the world, has become familiar through newspaper coverage, and now, finally, legislators and law enforcement agencies have begun to act. In Europe many EU Member States now have (or are developing) at least some sort of anti-trafficking policies (with some of them in the forefront of global anti-trafficking efforts). Moreover, the EU itself has become markedly more active with regard to curbing trafficking in human beings, as part of its migration control and police and judicial co-operation functions. However, even co-ordinated efforts such as those being worked on by the EU tend to produce only short-term 'cures' to a problem that is in truth global and structural in nature and which cannot be eradicated - or necessarily even significantly reduced - through policing and migration control measures alone. Too often there is little debate on broader measures which might be targeted to address the 'root causes' of trafficking, such as poverty, under-development, general lack of economic and migration opportunities and, above all, gender inequality. Against this background, this dissertation deals with present efforts to control trafficking in women for sexual exploitation. In doing so it examines claims that what is needed effectively to prevent and tackle trafficking is a 'comprehensive' approach, and at the very least one that is far more wide-ranging and coherent than what exists today, and also analyses the assertion that destination countries, and more specifically Member States of the EU, could and perhaps should, take more action against trafficking through regional co-operation, particularly in the framework of the EU, rather than as individual Member States. The thesis will be of interest to a wide range of scholars in EU law, human rights, comparative law, sociology, feminist theory and politics, as well as policy-makers, practitioners and NGO activists in various European countries.