Working together across the EU is essential to fight human trafficking, and in particular cooperation amongst the police is critical. Their place on the frontline gives them a key position to take action to end human trafficking, protect the victims and punish the traffickers.

The work of police and prosecutors will be the focus at the next event of Parliamentarians Against Human Trafficking (PAHT) project, taking place in the Swedish Parliament on Friday 15 March. Featuring over 30 MPs, leading NGO experts, police officers and prosecutors, participants will share their experiences of best practices in working together to tackle this crime and protect victims of trafficking.

There will be a special focus on the work of the police and prosecutors, on current collaborative police work across Scandinavia, and discussions on how the police can work together with parliamentarians and NGOs to ensure that EU member states meet their legal obligations in fighting human trafficking. The seminar will encourage cooperation between countries and coordination of national policy. This is one of the priorities of the EU Strategy towards the Eradication of Trafficking in Human Beings 2012-2016.

The seminar will be hosted by the Swedish Parliamentary Justice Committee, led by Mr Johan Linander MP (Vice Chairman). Prior to the seminar, a networking reception will held by HE Mr Adam Hałaciński, Ambassador of the Republic of Poland to Sweden, with more than 40 invited guests from politics, NGOs and academia, dedicated to fighting human trafficking.

The Swedish Parliament was chosen to hold this event due to the active work taking place in Scandinavia on anti-trafficking measures, especially by the Council of Baltic Sea States’ Task Force Against Trafficking in Human Beings and the Nordic Council. This  seminar, which follows on from previous meetings in London, The Hague, Rome, Warsaw, Helsinki, Lisbon and Madrid, will feature focused discussions and reports from individual countries on progress made in their national parliaments. The seminar is another opportunity for parliamentarians to develop further harmonisation in their policy-making and to consolidate their commitment to combating human trafficking across the EU.

Baroness Elizabeth Butler-Sloss, Co-Chair of the UK All Party Parliamentary Group on Human Trafficking, said, "I am delighted to be in Sweden and to have the opportunity to learn more about Scandinavian co-operation between parliamentarians, NGOs and the police in fighting trafficking. Only with a joined-up approach can we effectively tackle this dreadful crime.”

Human trafficking is a transnational crime.  The only way to effectively combat this severe violation of human rights is to ensure that politicians, NGOs and law enforcement authorities throughout the EU work collaboratively. 

The next seminar will be held in Vilnius, Lithuania in April and the final conference in Bucharest, Romania in June 2013.  For further details about the project, please visit: www.paht.eu       

PRESS CONTACT

Stana Buchowska, Project Coordinator, PAHT Project
Tel: +00 44 (0) 207 233 9887
Mob: +00 44 (0) 740 297 5545

Notes for editors:
1.    ECPAT UK (End Child Prostitution, Child Pornography and Trafficking of Children for Sexual Purposes) is a leading UK children’s rights organisation. ECPAT UK works with the highest levels of government, but also reaches out to practitioners and those working directly with children through research, training and capacity-building.

2.    The PAHT project is a joint initiative, led by ECPAT UK, with the Human Trafficking Foundation and the Asociatia High Level Group for Children (Romania), funded by the European Commission and the Tudor Trust.

The project aims to develop a European network of parliamentarians working to combat human trafficking in order to promote and develop cross-border cooperation and mutual understanding. The project will complement and stimulate national-level anti-trafficking activities, such as legal reform and victim support. The project aims to directly reach 100 parliamentarians across 15 countries, and 1000 indirectly through the participating parliamentarians reporting back to national parliaments. For further information see www.paht.eu.